


A Cloaked Heart

by HeadintheCloudsForever



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe, Blood and Injury, Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:35:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 61,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28860420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeadintheCloudsForever/pseuds/HeadintheCloudsForever
Summary: Safety is just an illusion. An illusion that young Squib Dora Tonks is thrust into a world of magic, deceit, wonder, and love when a man shows up at her doorstep one evening claiming her father is actually a wizard, and her life is changed forever when she learns of her past family's history. Another man who stumbles into her life is an escaped convict wanted for murder, while his best friend exhibits some unnatural...wolfish characteristics. Her life is forced into chaos when she is forced to go into hiding when an old family member shows up, wanting vengeance
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Harry Potter, though I wish I did! This piece is written purely for entertainment purposes.

**1**

**THE** autumn breeze carried drops of rain as newly chilled air moved the clouds, streaks of brilliance peeking through the clouds. Twenty-six-year-old Tonks let her eyes rest for a second, keeping her eyes closed, letting her mind be still, as she reached up and tucked a lock of her short bubblegum pink hair out of the way back behind her left ear.

It was easy to pretend that she lived in a tower at the edge of the forest, where she would lay in wait for some dashing handsome prince to come and rescue her from the tortures of otherwise mundane existence, but the moment a bus in the street below her burped, leaving a plume of exhaust in its wake, the illusion of the fantasy world her mind had created was shattered, effectively pulling the young woman from her daydream.

She stifled a groan and looked towards the clock on the mantlepiece in the living room. She would be late to work at this rate, and she wasn't sure if her boss would accept the excuse that she'd been daydreaming.

 _Again_. Tonks stifled a groan, finding it difficult not to roll her eyes a bit and tore her gaze away from the window, and away from her daydream. She was _not_ , as she had hoped, trapped in a tower, and awaiting some handsome prince to come save her.

No. She was in her two-bedroom flat in an apartment complex in the outskirts of the city of London that she shared with her father, Ted, and the fact that she was twenty-six and still lived with her dad, was well, for a lack of a better word, _sad_ , but ever since her mother, Meda had died from cancer a few years back, she was all Ted had, really, and Tonks couldn't bear to leave.

The fact that she was waitressing in a dead-end job should have been signs enough that the young woman's life was going nowhere, and yet, Tonks couldn't manage pretending to care.

She had resigned herself to the fact that she was doomed to live a quiet life long ago, the moment her mother took her last breath and left her alone with just her father for her only friend.

"Geeze, Daddy, can our place get any messier? No, wait, don't answer that, of course, it could, and the fact I just asked it means you could tempt fate," Tonks grumbled, glancing around at the empty potato chip bags and napkins that littered the area around his fake black leather armchair, where she knew he'd waste away the evening probably in front of the telly, punching the remote.

Tonks shook her head to herself and strode towards her father's chair, gathered up the empty chip bags in her arm, finding the remote buried underneath the sofa, and plopped it on the armrest of her dad's chair, so he'd have easy access to it later tonight.

She glanced down at her work uniform, a pair of simple blue jeans and a blue shirt, her nametag buried in her left pants pocket. She'd have to remember to put it on when she got to work. Tonks caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror and let out a haggard sigh. Her short shaggy pink hair was neat, not a strand out of place, and Tonks supposed she ought to be grateful the boss and her coworkers, not to mention the customers that came into the little restaurant where she worked, liked her hair this new shade of pale pink she'd recently dyed it.

Though no shade of new hair dye could disguise the growing prominent dark and purple bags underneath both of her eyes.

The young woman was working herself to death to avoid thinking about things she would really rather not think about at all. Even a few months after her mother's passing, it still haunted her, filling her nightmares with visions of her mother's ill, exhausted face. Tonks was sure she'd not received a full night's rest in months.

Tonks grumbled to herself under her breath as she set about finishing her chores before she left for her shift at work that she was sure to be late for if she didn't get a move on and hustle.

She sauntered over to the trash can and dumped the bags of empty potato chip bags into the trash can before striding over to their refrigerator, the damn thing so old that it groaned and creaked as Tonks opened the fridge, having to kneel down to peer inside. She let out a tired sigh as she pulled a microwave dinner from the fridge and set the pathetic-looking dinner of questionable looking barbecue ribs in the old microwave.

If she didn't leave Dad dinner, the man wouldn't eat at all. Tonks let out another tired sigh as she wheeled her bike out from her bedroom, thinking that was yet another thing that was going to need replacing soon before too long, though they lacked adequate money to get her a decent bike that fit her frame.

Tonks was petite and somewhat small for her age, and the fact that her father had gone out of his way to buy this bike second-hand from a pawnshop, wanting to surprise her with it, spoke volumes as to the kind of financial situation they were in.

Most bike shops wanted to sell you a bike that fits your frame, and the fact that Tonks hadn't been present when Ted had bought the bike for her was telling enough, that they were relatively poor, strapped for cash, but that Ted was trying hard.

He was trying hard to provide for his daughter, where he could. It was just another dream that the young woman knew she would never have: to ride a bike one day that fit Tonks's frame. She wheeled her bike out into the front hallway of their complex, though not before pausing at the door to check to ensure she had her bag, apartment keys, wallet, and her coat.

Satisfied she had everything, Tonks allowed herself a curt little nod as she glanced at her reflection one last time, tugging on a lock of her short pink hair, hoping the color didn't make her pale complexion look too peaky and sicky-looking, though she guessed that it could have been the fact that she wasn't sleeping.

Pursing her lips into a thin line, the pink-haired woman tore her gaze away from her pensive staring at her reflection and wheeled her bike out into the hallway and towards the open elevator doors, where Ted, God bless that man, was grumbling curses inaudibly under his breath as he was working on the wire, his bright blue janitor's jumpsuit looking quite disheveled.

"Oh, good, you're here!" Ted Tonks grumbled as he waved a piece of the broken wire he was working on mending in front of his lined and red, weather-beaten face. "Will you _look_ at this, Dora? This—this wire has been _chewed_! What is going on?!"

 _Oh, great_. Tonks furrowed her brows into a frown. Probably by rats. That was the _last_ thing her apartment complex needed.

But her dad was already on the beginnings of another rant. Tonks let out a tired sigh and pinched at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. You had to cut him off early or he'd get a full head of steam worked up about unfair his life was.

"This is an electrician's job, but who gets to do it?! _Me_ , hard-working guys like me, who'd work six jobs just to make ends meet, who will just bend over backward and take it and forced to stay _silent_."

Ted Tonks's words were spat more than spoken, and the man did not sound as though he particularly enjoyed spouting such bitter poisonous words to his only child, but he couldn't help himself, as he thought of all the ways that his life had gone wrong.

Dora nodded slowly to herself, occasionally making a non-commital grunt at the back of her throat to show she was listening.

"One day, baby. You'll see. You and I will leave London to go someplace new. I don't care what I have to do, Dora. We'll go someplace. Just you and me. _Away_ from here."

Ted scrunched his nose and pulled a face of disgust as he looked around at the peeling yellow floral wallpaper of the elevator, before sighing and turning his attention to the wires.

"Yes, Daddy," mumbled Tonks darkly. She had his speech memorized by this point in her life, hearing it every day of her life. She knew her cues, what she was supposed to say at the right time. "Your barbeque ribs are on top of the microwave," she mumbled as the elevator dinged, signaling they'd reached the bottom of the apartment complex. "See you later, Daddy."

He blinked owlishly at her, a piece of wire still caught between his thumb and forefinger. "Wait, wait, where are you going?"

"To _work_ , Dad. Like I do every day," Tonks sighed sadly.

Tonks snorted, though her back was already turned to her father as she started to maneuver her bike out of the elevator toward the door, having to grit her teeth to pick it up, where the front doorman, Carlos, shot her a sympathetic look that Tonks tried her hardest to ignore, though her cheeks burned, flushing high with color as her father shouted after her.

"Well. Take the stairs on your way back, just in case, and don't cut through the park! You never know what kind of creeps are lingering in the streets after dark," Ted Tonks cautioned.

Dora Tonks nodded, having this part of his speech memorized too, though she'd missed her entrance with her usual, "Yes, Dad." Tonks did not bother to look back over her shoulder as she wheeled her bike out of the elevator the moment it dinged.

"Wait! Dora, Wait! What did you leave me for dinner?" Ted called out.

At that, Tonks really did roll her eyes and snorted a bit. He hadn't heard her, as usual. Too wrapped up in the world of Ted, too engrossed in his own surroundings and problems.

Tonks groaned. She was beginning to get rather impatient with her father. He almost hardly ever truly listened to her, so caught up in his own problems that the man barely had time for her. They had the same conversation, day-in, and day-out as it was.

" _Ribs_ , Daddy, same as I do almost every other night. I'll be home later. Around ten. Don't wait up for me if I'm late. Bye, Dad," she called out over her shoulder, though the elevator door had already closed behind her father's crouched figure, and she was already halfway out the door by the time her poor father had thought to try to reply with a quip of his own.

As she stepped out the door, a blast of cool autumnal air wafted through the downtown bustling streets of London at nighttime. The wind tousled her short hair off of her forehead and pinked her cheeks.

Tonks winced as she perched herself on her bike's too-big seat and started pedaling, feeling grateful at least, that her route to get to work took her through the city's park. A small comfort where she could let her mind wander as she liked.

It was good as it got for someone like her, and Tonks was okay with that, though she didn't notice that she was being observed as the dreamy-eyed pink-haired woman pedaled her bike at a quickening pace, eager to get to work before the boss man had an excuse to fire her for being late to her reported shift again.

She breathed deeply, closing her eyes and letting her mind wander, thinking that at the very least, she was grateful that her mapped and relatively safe bike route to work always took her through the park, so Tonks could see the lines of the trees' canopies above her head, hear the call of the birds, and pretend, even if it was just for five minutes as she took the shortcut to get to work, that she was somewhere else, someplace far away from London, in a world where Mom was still alive and her Dad was a happier man…

That maybe, one day she would meet someone, a kind man with a good, pure heart, who would love her just the way she was, one who wouldn't look on her love for pink hair dyes and comic books with a look of disdain and tell her to grow up.

Tonks let out a sigh and kicked her bike's gearshift to the right mode and started pedaling, wincing as she did so, trying to ignore the feeling of her socks rubbing against the blisters on the backs of her heels in her black slip-on sneakers with no laces.

Her feet still ached from last night's shift, and she wasn't ready for another, but the boring routine that was her otherwise mundane existence demanded it. Her income helped to pay the rent and utilities, though it wasn't much to speak of. The only reason they were able to afford an apartment on this side of London was the fact that her dad was the janitor for the building, and the apartment was part of his rather meager pay.

As she rode her bike, twenty-six-year-old Dora Tonks had no idea the chain of events that were about to be set in motion that would irrevocably change her life forever, though whether those changes in the young woman's life would be for the better, well. Only time would tell for sure…

Tonks was already lost in the throes of another daydream, unaware at while she was pedaling away from her and her father's sparse, little apartment in the decrepit, falling-apart complex building and towards her job at The Grill on the Green, that two pairs of eyes were watching Dora, interested…

* * *

**THE** Muggles of London that an eccentric-old man silently observed as Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore passed them by in the streets barely noticed anything amiss, save for those with a particularly keen eye, that was.

While most men and women swept past the old wizard without so much as a second glance, thinking the man to be a vagabond or quite ill in the head, others couldn't help but notice that the wizened old man was dressed rather strangely for the likes of him in a set of billowing, pristine grey robes, his egregiously-long grey beard looking like it needed a trim an eon ago, his brilliant azure orbs twinkling behind a pair of thin, rimless half-moon spectacles.

While most went about their business, Albus Dumbledore kept his gaze fixated on the vivacious young-woman with the vibrant bubblegum pink hair as her silhouette perched on top of the too-big bike that she was riding faded from his line of sight.

He had to admit, considering who her parents were, it was something of a disturbing image for him to see, and a heartbreaking one, that Ted was keeping the truth from Dora.

It pained him to learn the truth, but he'd hoped that Mr. Tonks would implore him to see reason when he paid the Muggle-born janitor of the complex here in a moment, but for now, he was more than content to watch the young woman disappear, until she and her bike disappeared around a corner.

"She's a beauty, isn't she, Dumbledore?" came a new voice.

Professor Dumbledore made an odd little grunting noise out of the back of his throat as the old man turned at the waist, abruptly annoyed, as he had assumed no one had noticed him.

"She is," he murmured in an uncharacteristically gruff voice as his gaze settled upon the new arrival, but Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody fixed Albus with a piercing stare from his magically swiveling eye that even to this day, after years of friendship with the young man, still unnerved Albus to an nth degree, though he would never dare admit it to the grizzled old Auror, his friend. Besides, Albus couldn't shake the feeling that he _knew_.

"What makes you think _he'll_ show up here in London?" barked Moody hoarsely in a rough, coarse voice that sounded much like a wooden crate being scraped on a cobblestone street.

Albus sanguinely lifted his head and turned towards the Auror, pursing his lips into a thin, unmovable line as he looked at Moody.

"Call it a genius's intuition, Alastor. It's one of the perks of being _me_ , you see. It is merely a hunch, but like it or not, the girl is one of Black's last surviving relatives. It seems only natural that he would seek sanctuary with his cousin, sir."

Alastor nodded, his posture straightened, ignoring several terrified stares from Muggle passersby at his swiveling blue eye.

"And what about…" Moody wildly gesticulated with his scarred hands, attempting to convey his point. "What of _him_?"

Albus almost snorted, finding it difficult not to roll his eyes. "If, by _him_ , Alastor, I presume you are referring to Black's former best friend, Remus John Lupin, then _yes_ , he is here too, because I called for him to be here. It's only proper."

Moody scowled at the mention of the younger man and wolf.

"And you don't think having him present for this little school reunion of Black's is going to be seen as a conflict of interest?"

At that, Professor Dumbledore could only shrug his shoulders. "Perhaps," he admitted, though he sounded more intrigued than ashamed of allowing the man's former friend to be present at this little impromptu meeting with him, Alastor, and Ted.

He turned his profile to the side just in time to see the grizzled old Auror toss his knotted mane of sandy-blond hair over his shoulders, staring at him with an incredulous look with his one good remaining blue eye. "And that doesn't _bother_ you at all?"

Professor Dumbledore must have let his honest feelings show on his face, for his friend and colleague within the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic merely looked at the Hogwarts Headmaster with raised eyebrows and a wry smile, clearly amused by the wizard's reactions to Alastor's words.

"You've been watching that girl for _months_ , Albus, and there is no change to her routine. Black hasn't shown up at her doorstep seeking asylum from his escape from Azkaban," Moody barked hoarsely as he pointed a scarred finger, what was left of it, that is, in the direction of the young woman had gone.

Professor Dumbledore chuckled, the edges of his long grey beard twitching without prompting as he looked at his friend.

"My dear Alastor, you really _are_ as observant as they say. It's true, that I've come to this part of the city for a specific purpose, yes," he replied to the Auror's prodding, somewhat begrudgingly. "But I cannot speak much further about why the young woman is of interest to me other than her relationship with our escaped convict, Alastor. He will go to Tonks. _Yes_."

Moody made an odd little sniffing noise at the back of his throat that suggested he doubted the eccentric wizard's words. "Oh, most of the men in these streets take an interest in that girl. She's quite pretty, Albus, that much is clear as daylight—"

"It is nothing of that nature, my good man, I can assure you of that!" Professor Dumbledore barked in a harsh voice, very nearly stopping their somewhat leisurely stroll as they headed in the opposite direction of where the young woman in question had disappeared to, blissfully unaware she was the topic of their conversation as the pair of wizards headed towards the complex.

"I'm sorry, Albus. I did not mean to make assumptions as to the nature of your character. But you can't deny, she's cute."

"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed with his colleague's statement as they headed towards the complex where Muggle-born Ted Tonks lived alone with his only daughter. It was rumored the wizard had hidden his powers from his child as she grew up.

A risk, and a dangerous one at that. Albus furrowed his brows into a frown as he glanced up at the sky, watching for any signs.

The grizzled old Auror noticed the shift in the older wizard's behavior and knitted his brows together in worry, staring at him. "What are you looking for? Is it Lupin? When did he say he was going to arrive? You sure it's a good idea to have him present for this, Albus? The man was Black's _best_ _friend_ , Albus."

Dumbledore's expression turned quite solemn and grim as he paused outside the complex's front door, folding his fingers together in front of his middle and inclining his head slightly.

"All the more important then, for the man to be present. He deserves to hear the full truth from his best friend's own mouth, as it were, Alastor, my old friend, if what I suspect really happened, then, well…we'll know one way or another if my hunch is true, and I must confess, that I'm very rarely _wrong_."

Moody grunted wordlessly in response, though after a moment he spoke, his voice low as the pair of them continued to hover near the front door. Alastor didn't even have to use his magical eye's abilities to see through the door to know the two of them hovering in a way like this was unnerving the poor doorman.

"If you'd divulge more information, Albus, then I could help you," he said. "And if it should suit you, I will talk to Ted, sir."

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "I would like that. It is the main reason I asked you here. You and Ted Tonks are friends, yes?"

Only when Moody slowly nodded his head did Albus continue. "Good. It's tiring, the drastic measures we have to resort to in order to learn the truth," he began as he fiddled with a loose string coming undone on the right sleeve of his robes. "I very rarely interfere in peoples' lives in this nature, Alastor, though I want to, especially when said person is in grave danger, it seems that I do this job quite well, Moody, of that there is no denying. Ted Tonks _made_ his choice a long time ago, sir."

"Because Andromeda was a witch and their daughter a Squib, he thought that...he had to keep that life from her, because of her...colorful family history? Because of her mother's relationship with Bellatrix, is that the reason they went into hiding and disappeared?" Moody began cautiously, speaking slowly so as to understand.

Though he'd kept an eye on the girl over the last six months, per Dumbledore's request, he'd never once introduced himself, and tonight, assuming all went well enough if Black dared to show his mug to his last surviving cousin, it would be the first.

Dumbledore nodded, confirming his colleague's suspicions.

"Indeed. To save their only daughter the pain of being brought up in a world which she is not a part of, he hid his abilities. He still does, from what I aim to understand of Mr. Tonks, Alastor."

"But tonight, if Black shows his face, he won't have a _choice_. The man is rumored to be _dangerous_ , Albus, what reason do you have to think that he won't kill the girl if he shows up, sir?"

Dumbledore turned his head to the side and shot Moody a coy little smile that sent a cold chill wafting down Alastor's spine, for reasons that he could not yet explain, and he was rendered speechless, at a loss for words, what to say to Dumbledore now.

"Call it a hunch. Black has little family left that cares for him, Alastor. Andromeda had always liked Sirius when the boy was younger, I have every inkling to believe he will seek her out in exchange for a place to lay _low_ for a few days, Alastor, considering he's one of the first to break out of Azkaban. He knows the Aurors will be searching the streets for him, which is where you come in, my old friend. I believe having your presence around tonight will prove most beneficial in calming Ted Tonks down. He cannot keep the truth from his daughter any longer, as things are going to be set in motion and come to her attention that she will not understand, and I fear Ted keeping the truth from her will only serve to confuse and upset Miss Dora Tonks even further. It's _time_ , Moody," was all he said, at the precise exact moment an ear-piercing scream rent the otherwise quiet night air behind them, coming from the left.

Moody and Dumbledore's heads turned sharply towards the source of the noise, a woman's voice, and neither man was surprised to see a small crowd parting on the sidewalk like that of the Red Sea, though what they saw next caused Albus to chuckle and Mad-Eye Moody to cry out in shock and surprise, whirling his head towards the source of the disturbance.

A chill ran through Moody's spine as he heard the woman's yell of help, screaming at the top of her lungs about a rat, and another man's angry voice rent the air, screaming at anybody nearby to stop the hulking black dog that was now giving chase.

Alastor gritted his teeth in anger and annoyance as he leaned heavily against his walking stick for support, his other hand plunging into an interior pocket of his brown tattered trench coat, his fingers of his wand hand itching to draw his wand, though he didn't want to cause a spectacle in front of so many Muggles, though he felt his jaw become slack in utter surprise.

A brown and black blur darted past the complex's front doors that Albus Dumbledore and Mad-Eye Moody stood in front of.

Moody spluttered indignantly a series of curses under his breath that Dumbledore dared not repeat as a huge, hulking black dog sped after a small, tattered, scared-looking brown rat.

The rat's beady blackened eyes looked like it was about to pop right out of its eye sockets, while the dog's narrowed blackened eyes were intense, full of a fierce concentration as it gave chase.

Unusual for a dog's behavior, but Dumbledore and Moody knew, unbeknownst to the crowd of Muggles gathered staring after the dog and rat speeding off in the direction Ted Tonks's daughter had disappeared to, that this was no ordinary dog.

The dog was actually the Animagus form of escaped convict Sirius Black, a wanted wizard for the murder of twelve innocent Muggles in the streets of London, and the Potters' Secret-Keeper at the time, Peter Pettigrew, though judging by the looks of things, Dumbledore pondered, his hunch was correct.

That Sirius Black was, as it so happened, innocent, and Pettigrew was alive, as was evidenced by this previous school term when Dumbledore had regained possession of the Marauder's Map and had spotted Pettigrew's name alongside that of Ronald Weasley's, and it was then that his calculating mind was able to put together the missing pieces of the story.

"Merlin's left buttock!" Moody swore through gritted teeth, pulling Dumbledore from his thoughts as the dog continued to give chase before disappearing down and around the very corner of the sidewalk that Ted Tonks's daughter had just vanished.

Alastor murmured a string of curses under his breath and made to turn on the heels of his boots with the intent to Disapparate, though he froze where he stood as a third man lumbered over on their immediate left, skidding to a halt and almost barreling a redhaired Muggle woman over in the process, who snapped at him for jostling her shoulder and whirled around on her heel.

"Hey! Why don't you watch where you're going, guy?!"

The newcomer shot the red-haired woman a sheepish, apologetic glance, though it was a wonder he had enough stamina left within him to still draw in a breath, as winded as he looked. Dumbledore and Moody fell silent, watching and waiting to see what their new arrival, Remus Lupin, had to say.

"My—my dog," he gasped in a smooth, melodious voice, the kind of voice a man ought to have, though the poor fellow was utterly windswept, pink in the face. He was a younger man, still quite young in his early thirties, perhaps thirty-three years old.

Though his thick tuft of short light brown hair was flecked with bits of premature grey here and there. His lined face looked tired and serious, though his light brown eyes were quite kind.

He looked towards the red-haired woman, currently eyeing him with a look of interest, though the man paid it no mind.

"Were you the woman who screamed?" he asked, examining the Muggle woman with a quick but thorough, cautious glance.

She watched him warily, her fingers curling into a tight fist over the strap of her purse slung over her shoulders, her lips pursed into a thin line as she made a quick scan of the new man.

The woman's (and Dumbledore and Moody's) first impression of the man was that he was in no shape to be running at all in his current physical condition, as the man looked peaky and exhausted, dark bags from lack of sleep under both his eyelids. The man's almost threadbare heather grey sweater looked a tad too big for him, as it clung to his slender frame in parts and hung off him in others. His trousers were well fitted, at least.

His face was ashen and an unnatural pale shade, almost bone-white, though Moody swore it turned an interesting shade of green, and he squeezed his eyes shut, sending a silent prayer to Merlin Above that the man wasn't about to get sick.

That was the _last_ bloody thing they needed, was Lupin making an even bigger fool of himself...

"Padfoot, which…which way did my…my _dog_ go? He—he got away from me in the…in the park back that way…" he managed to squeeze out, gasping, clutching a stitch in his side.

"Your—your dog's name is Padfoot? Chasing…a rat?" The Muggle woman questioned suspiciously as she tossed her red hair over her shoulders and quirked a brow at the man's face.

The man drew in another heavy breath and let it out, slowly righting his posture and flinching as he did so, still clutching at his ribcage as though it wounded him, Dumbledore observed.

When he nodded, unable to speak, still looking quite winded, the woman jerked her head towards the sidewalk and pointed a purple-manicured finger to the corner that lay just ahead of him.

"That way. Good luck catching him though, he's _fast_! You better make sure the rat doesn't go into the Grill on the Green, though, the manager there is notorious for a bad temper, and bloody well _hates_ dogs, and pretty much all people too," she muttered darkly, rolling her eyes, and falling silent as she waited for the new arrival to speak, watching his posture straighten up.

The man nodded, carding his fingers through his hair, blowing out a breath, and looking in the general direction Padfoot went.

Lupin paused, and Dumbledore could tell by the pensive look on the younger wizard's face that he was doing some very quick thinking. "He's…got PTSD. Rats and…screaming set him off. I—I don't know all the details, but I do know he's bound to get me in trouble," he growled, looking down at the broken leash and tossed it aside with an unhappy grunt before turning back to her. "Third time the dog's gotten away from me in a _month_. That way, you said. Near the restaurant?" the sickly-looking man confirmed, looking towards the bustling, cracked sidewalk.

The red-haired woman mutely nodded before turning her back and mumbling darkly to herself under her breath after people taking much better care to look after their pets in a city like London and not be so foolhardy as to let them escape.

The man with the light brown hair turned towards Dumbledore and Moody, his cheeks still flushed bright pink. It seemed to take the new arrival an eternity to find his voice, but when Lupin did, his normally quiet, reserved voice was hardened.

"I'm going after him," Lupin growled in a low voice that sent a chill down Moody and Dumbledore's spines at the same time, in a tone that Professor Dumbledore would almost go as far as to describe the shift in the man's voice as, well… _wolfish_.

Moody snorted, rolling his one good eye, though his magical eye remained fixated on the sidewalk, as his mind drifted to thoughts of Ted Tonks and Andromeda Tonks's only daughter.

"Good luck catching him, Remus. The _leash_ was a nice touch, a good way to blend in with the Muggles in this area, Remus. I'm sure Black is going to _love_ it if and when you _catch_ him, Lupin," he barked in his usual roughened voice, though the edges of the grizzled old Auror's voice were less stern than usual. "Merlin speed to you, then. You're going to _need_ it, boy."

Thirty-three-year-old Remus Lupin nodded irately and merely grunted wordlessly in response, too angry at Sirius escaping him yet again to respond with a comeback of his own, his expression hardened as he inclined his head by way of an informal greeting of sorts to the Headmaster and Auror Moody.

He said not a word as he strode off down the sidewalk's path in front of him, not bothering to look back over his shoulder at Moody and Dumbledore, as the older wizards stared at the man's towering, slender silhouette as Lupin faded from view.

There was nothing that Albus Dumbledore could say to express the awe and gratitude of Lupin's quick thinking and timing at saving the young Muggle girl from asking too many probing questions. Neither one of the wizards wanted to draw their wands in public and risk violating the Statute of Secrecy.

"Should we have said something to him, Albus? About Ted's girl?" Moody asked after a long moment spent in heavy silence.

"No," Albus shook his head, turning to the side and fixing his colleague with a pointed stare. "He'll find out soon enough. He is, after all, tasked with bringing Black back here to us both."

Moody merely grunted in response as he turned towards the door. "That he will," he murmured darkly under his breath, his magical eye swiveling towards the back of his head to get one last look at Remus John Lupin's tall form as he disappeared around the bend of the same sidewalk that Ted's daughter had. "Does he know the truth of the Tonks family and the girl, sir?"

Albus shook his head, confirming Moody's suspicions that no, Lupin did not know that the Tonks' only child was a sad Squib.

"No, but…he _will_ ," he murmured as he stood in front of the apartment complex's door with a hopeful expression resting on his lined and somewhat placid features, his blue eyes twinkling.

He noticed Moody rolling his one good eye out of the corner of his peripherals and furrowed his greying brows into a frown.

"What? You don't think this will work?" he questioned of the grizzled old Auror, suddenly beginning to feel quite annoyed.

Moody gave his colleague a withering 'leave me out of this' gaze, his one good blue eye narrowed as he glared at Albus.

"Your plan is _insane_ , Albus, but I think that it _has_ to," his ever-serious nature giving Moody a business-first air of personality. "We don't really have much of a choice. Looks like you were right in that Black was sure to seek out Meda and Ted's home, otherwise, he'd have no reason to come to this part of London, but how the bloody hell did the _rat_ wind up in this part of the city? And when did Remus catch onto the truth? None of this makes sense, Albus! When are you going to let me into what's going on?" Moody questioned, feeling like his mind was reeling as his brain worked on overdrive to put together the missing pieces, hating that he had was left with more questions than answers.

Answers that he hoped Dumbledore would provide.

Dumbledore's blue eyes were twinkling as the older wizard reached up a hand and clapped the man on the back.

" _That_ , my good man, is a question which I am not obliged to answer at this time, I think it best if I save it for when Mr. Lupin returns with Black and Miss Tonks in tow, don't you agree, Alastor?"

Professor Dumbledore looked towards the tired aging Auror with a strange tinge of melancholy in his bright blue eyes.

"I must _help_ that man, I think Lupin needs it now more than ever. From what poor Lyall told me of his son in our correspondence, he's become quite reclusive and shut-in. I think that…perhaps once he learns the truth, he will open up a bit more. And perhaps, who knows, maybe Ted and Andromeda's daughter will take a liking to the man. He's quite kind and mild-mannered, though you don't need me to tell you that, Alastor," Dumbledore chuckled before his expression once more turned serious as he glared at Alastor. "His mother, Hope, Merlin bless her soul, would want that for her son, and now, with things with Sirius escalating as they have been, I'd like to see it myself, for him to find some bit of happiness in his lonely life, Moody."

Moody grunted again, his scarred lips pursed into a thin line. "If you _say_ so, Albus, though that poor devil is going to have a _time_ on his hands trying to explain all of this to Tonks's girl."

Professor Dumbledore made an odd little noise at the back of his throat. "Indeed," was all he could manage to answer Moody.

Without so much as another word to his colleague and dear old friend, Albus Dumbledore pressed his hands against the door of the apartment complex that Ted Tonks had hidden away in, thinking that it was the time after all these years to be reunited with yet another old friend and to convince him that it was _time_.

His daughter had every right to learn the truth from him, and Ted Tonks had stalled long enough as it was, Albus knew this.

But no more. Albus's expression was set in a look of determined resolve as he plastered a pleasant enough smile on his lined face as the complex's doorman, Carlos, shot his rather eccentric-looking appearance quite a perplexed, flustered look.

While Dumbledore was dealing with the security situation on the first floor of the apartment complex, Mad-Eye Moody lingered outside by the front door, his magical eye able to stretch distances like nothing else, his gaze still fixated on Lupin's form.

Moody's expression turned grim as he realized the younger man in his pursuit of Sirius and the wretched rat, was smart enough to not look back. He snorted and turned his back on the scene, and followed Albus Dumbledore inside the complex, letting the door shut gingerly behind him. He didn't like this.

Interfering in Ted Tonks's life like this when the man was only doing what he thought best for his daughter, much less the fact that Albus was talking of having an escaped convict in his home, and only due to the fact that Sirius and Andromeda were friends.

Black was sure to be devastated when he learned Meda was dead, and that his own blood cousin possessed no magic in her veins. He let out a sigh and turned towards Albus, who was now animatedly discussing lemon drops with the front doorman.

Moody knew he could not stop what had happened. It had already been set into place, and like it or not, it was happening.

But for better or worse, everything was about to change. And Moody could not quite shake the cold feeling of dread from his spine that he wasn't sure it was a change that was for the better.


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

**THE** bloody damned dog came out of _nowhere_ , almost as if by magic, or at least that's what it _seemed_ like to Tonks, chasing after what looked like a huge brown rat, moving so fast that Dora Tonks barely had time to blink.

The moment she swerved her bike to the left to avoid hitting the huge black dog that darted in front of her path and failing in the process, managing to hit the dog anyway, was the split second that Tonks lost control of her ability to steer.

Tonks's bike hit the tree in front of her, she assumed that she was going to get a concussion, at least. Her first coherent thought as she lay on the ground in a tangled mess of limbs amidst her probably now-totaled bike, was that she _almost_ wished she had been knocked unconscious. Maybe that would have been better.

Just to lay out here sprawled on the sidewalk and just slip into a state of unconsciousness.

Anything would be better than to feel the pain. Her head throbbed, pounding against the front and sides of her temples and she swore she tasted blood. She felt the aching and cracks in her bruised bones. Each crack felt like rocks were burrowing into her skin. Tonks sucked in air, feeling like her lungs were about to cave in on themselves.

She saw the black spots in the corners of her hazy vision, making her head feel like the only thing inside of it right now was just static.

" _Ow_." It was the only thing she could say as she let out a hiss of pain through gritted teeth. Her head must have hit the sidewalk hard when she crashed her bike. Guess that would explain why it felt like a hammer was crushing her skull. Tonks let out a pained whimper.

This was _not_ turning out to be her evening, was it? Not her day at all.

She lay there for a while, too dazed and shocked to move. Never in her entire adult life of riding her bike had she ever crashed and burned quite like _that_ before. This was…very _new_.

How long she lay sprawled out in an ungraceful, tangled mess of limbs, Tonks couldn't say for certain, but it was at least long enough for the pain in her head to reduce to a dull throbbing. Her body could at least attest to the fact that like everything, well it felt like everything _hurt_.

Unsure whether or not she had broken anything in the fall, Tonks concluded that attempting any sort of sudden movement on her part was a bad idea, at least at first.

Instead, Tonks simply kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, and forcing as much air into her winded lungs as possible, while also trying not to scream out in both frustration and pain in the process.

Now she was _really_ going to be late for work, but at least this time, she had a valid excuse.

She allowed her head to loll to the side and her blood in her veins went cold as she got a good look at the hulking black dog that she had hit lying still in the sidewalk, seemingly not breathing after she'd hit it with her bike.

"Oh, my God, I've _killed_ it!" Tonks cried in disbelief, a sickening sense of dread wafting over her body as she struggled to sit upright. She gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut and blinking back tears of pain and both frustration as she struggled to sit up and found it quite the demanding task. God, but she had never killed anything before!

Not even bugs whenever they managed to get into her and Dad's apartment! Tonks wasn't sure if she could live with herself if she got to the dog and were to discover that she'd killed the poor thing.

Whoever owned it was sure to be totally _devastated_! Tonks let out a moan as she struggled to sit upright, tentatively raising a shaking hand to her head to assess the damage. Her fingers slid through her pink locks with relative ease, gingerly pressing in all directions to check for bruises, bumps, lacerations.

It wasn't until the pads of her fingers reached the back of her skull that Dora finally found it, flinching as she barely touched it. A good, nice-sized lump at the base of her head the size of an egg. The moment her shaking, cautious fingers touched it, a flare of white-hot, needle-like pain erupted from the newfound injury.

She let out a hiss of pain, still keeping her eyes squeezed tightly shut, and forced herself to open her eyes, keeping her gaze fixated on the otherwise lifeless, huge black dog lying a few feet from her. Tonks knew she needed to check on the poor thing as soon as possible, though before she could do that, her gaze drifted to her bike.

"Oh, no, no, no, _no_!" she groaned, curling her bleeding knuckles into a fist, and striking out at the concrete as she struggled to sit upright. She slammed her shaking fist into the ground over and over again, which hurt like hell, and made the tears spring to her eyes even harder, cradling her sore hand.

The front chainring was totally bent, and she had no way to fix it. One of the wheels had somehow spun completely off, and there was no bloody way Tonks was going to ride to work now.

Groaning, Tonks forced herself to crawl towards where the dog lay, determined on making sure the poor beast was alive. Though as she neared the size of the creature, her pale grey-blue irises widened in shock and awe. This black dog was _huge_! He didn't look like any normal-sized dog in these parts of London that Tonks had ever seen.

Though almost the moment Tonks's hand outstretched with the intent to check to see if he was still breathing, the dog bolted upright and shook his head, perking his large ears up at the new person kneeling in front of him as Tonks forced herself into a crouching position by the dog.

She breathed out a shaking sigh of relief to see that she hadn't killed it, as she had initially been afraid that she had.

"Where's your collar, huh, boy? What's your name? And why isn't your master around? Are you all alone out here?" Tonks murmured, feeling the dog's gnarled and matted fur, furrowing her eyebrows as a frown flitted across her pale, heart-shaped face at whoever would treat their poor dog in such a despicable way.

His fur was matted and tangled, dried and congealed with bits of what felt suspiciously like blood, and Tonks shuddered, hoping the dog didn't have fleas, and as she moved her hands along his ribcage, the poor thing shivered, and she could tell the dog hadn't eaten a good square meal in days, maybe even weeks as she could feel the dog's bony ribcages sticking outright.

She couldn't be sure, but she swore as the dog nuzzled the top of his face with her palm that the dog preened a little at her voice. _Odd_. Tonks let out a haggard sigh, looking towards her trashed bike before heaving a heavy groan and shuffling along the sidewalk to get it, sensing the shadow of the dog's movements behind her as the creature started to follow her.

"No, no, no, you _can't_ come with me! The boss man where I work _hates_ dogs! I've got nowhere to put you, and if you follow me into work then you're just going to give me the sack!" she snapped, turning back at the waist to glower at the black dog.

The dog's previously perked-up ears drooped, and the low, pitiful whine that emitted from deep within its chest was just enough to send a pang of guilt through Dora Tonks's heart.

She huffed in frustration, stomping her foot on the ground, and pinched at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, thinking she'd been bloody lucky not to be hurt even worse than a few scrapes and bruises, though a cut along her left browbone was trickling blood, and her shoulders felt bruised and very sore.

Tonks rolled her neck to crack it, desperately trying to ignore the swelling pain and overall aching feeling of her entire body.

She moaned as the dog let out another truly pitiful whine, nuzzling her hand with its long snout. She let out a sigh, unable to shake the feeling like she was going to really regret doing this.

"Fine, _fine_ , I guess you and I are partners for the night, huh? You can stay for one night back at my place, but in the morning, you're gone!" Tonks let out a low, agonized groan as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "A good boy like you is sure to have someone come looking for you. I _hope_. I sure _hope_ that's the case because our flat doesn't allow dogs, buddy."

She _swore_ the dog preened at the compliment, though she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"I don't see a collar on you, or anybody chasing after you, boy," she grumbled, a fiery heat creeping to her cheeks as she realized she must have hit her head harder than she thought if she was actually holding a conversation with a _dog_.

Dora had never considered herself the type of person who would actually talk to their pets. Tonks started to wheel her dinged up and ruined bike that at this point, was apt to find a better home in a nearby dumpster, heading towards the little café and coffee shop where she worked, before realizing that the smartest course of action would be to just go home now.

The boss was sure to give her seven shades of holy hell not only showing up to her assigned shift almost thirty minutes late but with a bleeding gash on her brow and a huge black beast in tow.

Oh, yeah, baby! He'd _really_ love that excuse this time. It might even win her an employee of the month award up on his stupid wall, though if she was being honest with herself here for a second, the only employee that ever won the stupid Employee of the Month award was Norah.

_Always_ Norah and Tonks suspected it was only because their _pervert_ of a manager thought she was _cute_ , and Norah was insanely cute, though that was a thought process for another time. Tonks groaned, thinking her boss would laugh at her if she told, and decided to just cut her losses and go for home, and deal with the consequences of calling out later.

"Nope. I don't think I can go in today. I—I need to go home, I think I'm going crazy. I must have hit my head harder than I thought if I'm talking to you now and half-expecting that you can answer me."

The dog's ears perked up, and he made an odd noise at the back of his throat that almost— _almost_ —sounded like he agreed.

"C'mon, boy, you and I are going home. I'll just have to find a way to sneak you into the complex somehow and hope Mr. Murry doesn't find out or else he'll kick Dad and me out," Tonks grumbled to the dog under her breath. She scrunched her nose in disgust as she thought of Murry, the building's landlord who was frankly, beyond all hope.

Her father was already on edge with Murry as it was, and the last thing she and Dad needed was for Mr. Murry to need a final excuse to look to evict them, and then they would be homeless.

As Tonks shook her head to clear her mind, the dog trailing happily alongside her, its ears perked up and every so often, the black beast would wag its tail, despite looking like it was sore from being hit with her bike.

A pang of guilt wormed its way into her churning stomach as Tonks noticed the dog was limping.

It didn't seem too bothered by it though, which she guessed was a good thing, though if the dog had an owner, that was going to be a tough thing to explain away, and she cursed herself for thinking this next thought, but she sincerely hoped that if whoever _did_ happen to own this dog, if he wasn't a stray, did come looking for their missing pet and found him, that they would take pity on Tonks and her dad and not ask the two of them to try to chip in for the medical bills, considering the two of them were basically living month-to-month as it already was.

This thought plagued her mind. Tonks hated thinking along these lines, but this was the reality of her and her father's situation. Tonks couldn't be sure as she wheeled her ruined bike back in the direction that she had come from, but she swore she felt like she was being followed as an odd whistling sound that hadn't been there before, rent the air.

The young woman froze, the dog halting alongside her too as she looked behind her, tracking the sound of the horrible whistling, her face draining of color as a tall, thin man stepped out from behind the trees. He whistled softly in a seemingly non-threatening way as he dragged his feet leisurely through the fallen autumnal leaves.

Tonks swallowed thickly as the stranger stopped directly between Tonks and her path back home and cocked his head to the side. "Catchy tune, little dove, wouldn't you say?" he asked.

His voice was deep and gravelly, his thin, wormy lips curved into a smile, though there was something about the man's eyes that sent a tingle of warning all through Tonks's nervous system.

The moment she heard the dog let out a low warning growl, that was when the realization hit her full force that this was not a bloke simply wandering the streets of London Tonks could trust.

The first thing Tonks noticed about the stranger was his hair, of all features.

His dark hair was a vibrant shade of jet-black, almost like the color of ink, looking like he'd spilled a bottle of ink onto his hair. Pulled back into a low ponytail, it gave him somewhat of an impressive appearance.

His boots were leather, looking like they were made of snakeskin of some kind, and he was dressed entirely in black, though the man's eyes were a smoldering pit of fathomless deep brown, the likes of which she'd not seen before.

Tonks tried to appear casual as she took a slow step back, the dog following her movements, not leaving her side, though the beast kept its teeth bared, gums pulled back in a snarl.

"I see you've found my missing _doggy_ , how…kind of you. I been tracking this one a _long_ time, little dove," he grinned as he proceeded to pluck a leaf from one of the low-hanging limbs near his head and turned it over thoughtfully in his calloused hands.

Judging by the way the dog to her left was currently growling at the stranger that was now rapidly advancing on her, Tonks highly doubted the man in front of her was this poor black dog's master.

Tonks swallowed nervously as the man lifted his gaze to hers and flicked the leaf away carelessly with a practiced flick of his finger, his features hardening considerably as he glared at Tonks.

Fear twisted through her stomach as a coil in her gut gave a painful lurch as she continued to back away from him, not really sure where she was going, or what she thought she was going to do.

She looked to the left and right for any sign of a nearby cop. None. Tonks stifled a low, agonized moan. _Just great_.

Tonks gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. Tonks sucked in a startled breath as she stumbled backward over her own feet, cursing herself for her sudden clumsiness, and dropped her bike in front of the man now advancing on them.

Her bike was a lost cause anyway. It couldn't be repaired, she was going to have to get a new one if she survived through this, and right now, the only thing the bike was doing was slowing her down. The man snorted, rolling his eyes as he casually stepped over her fallen and discarded bike, the wheels still spinning lazily.

Her gaze shifted between the snarling dog at her side and the man advancing on them, his eyes narrowed until they were mere slits, reminding her of a panther stalking its prey in the shadows.

"Look, I—I don't have anything to _give_ you," she began, hating the quiet tremor that was warbling in her voice, seeping its way unbidden to the surface. "I don't have any money with me."

"I don't _want_ your Galleons or Knuts, sweetheart, I don't want your money, dollface," the man who Tonks decided to call the Whistling Man for now, unless he gave his name, declared, sending Tonks into a state of confusion.

_Galleons? Knuts_? Tonks blinked owlishly at the tall, stocky man, momentarily taken aback, and forgetting the danger of her precarious situation. Nausea wormed its way through the walls of her stomach as the words he'd just spouted sank in.

This _wasn't_ a mugging, then. The only two things remaining that this creep could possibly want from her, well, Tonks was not at all willing to give it up.

_Mom_? She begged silently to the heavens, hoping that somehow, wherever Mom was, God bless her soul, she was watching out for her even now. She couldn't form the thoughts she needed, but she hoped that she would be able to understand.

Tonks at this point fully expected panic to set in and take over, though the moment she felt a familiar icy resolve slide beneath her skin, was the exact second she realized she needed to run.

"Wh—what _do_ you _want_ then?" she managed to gasp out, thinking it strange that instead of panicking, she was quite calm.

Though she suspected it was this familiar icy coldness, the barrier that protected her when the pain and fear became too much, whenever things around her and Dad would happen that she couldn't explain, and her dad didn't seem to want to entertain the idea that something was amiss, much less talk to Dora of it all.

The stranger let a dark little chuckle escape from his lips as he raised his hands in front of him to showcase a mock surrender.

"Just to have a little _chat_ , miss," he continued speaking in a smooth, languid baritone. "And to get my dog back, dear…"

Tonks found herself surveying the area as he quickly moved to close in around her and the strange stray black dog she'd hit with her bike. There was no _way_ on God's green earth she was going to be able to skirt past this creep and into the restaurant, no way.

Even if she did manage to somehow escape through the park, there was nothing to stop them from catching her and dragging her to some quiet, undisclosed place, where if she let that happen, then she'd really be in a spot of serious trouble, then, wouldn't she? She knew her chances of escaping were virtually impossible.

This strange dark-haired Whistling Man, as Tonks had decided to call the guy was probably a foot or two taller than her, at best, 6'2 maybe, and he moved like a professional athlete, his movements so quick they were almost a blur, and his strides lithe.

Tonks swallowed hard at the lump that had formed in her throat as it hollowed and constricted, rendering her feeling lightheaded and rather dizzy as the stranger approached, his movements careful and precise, despite the black dog's savage growling and barking, the man-made no attempts to back off.

She exhaled shakily through her nose as she had to accept the fact that this man had intentions to hurt her, and maybe the dog. And that she would escape if she had a chance—she would survive—but if nothing else came of it, she would try her hardest to make sure this guy regretted choosing her to take advantage of.

"Don't you even _think_ about rabbiting off somewhere, doll," the dark-eyed man barked in a hoarse voice. "You look cagey, Miss Tonks," he grumbled, and hearing her surname from this man's thin wormy lips chilled Tonks's blood to ice in her veins.

_Oh, God_. "Y—you know my _name_?" she breathed, her eyes making a quick scan of the man's towering form, desperately trying to commit every detail of the man's face to her memory.

Just in case she had to give a description to the cops later. She wracked her brain trying to remember if she had met him before. Was this creep a disgruntled customer that she'd served food to on one of her bad days, maybe? Had he hit on her or something and she'd rejected him, and he'd come back to take what was his?

"I do, sweetheart," he confirmed, those listless blue eyes of his once more sending a chill down her spine. "Let's just say I know your _daddy_. He and I go back a _long_ way, little Dora. You might even call your father a former _friend_ ," he grinned maliciously.

Though at the mention of her father, even in passing like this, it did not escape her attention how his facial expression soured, the crinkling of his nose as if he'd smelled something rotten.

"Look, man, please don't _do_ this," Dora begged, and her voice came out far steadier than it had a moment ago, which she thought was strange, hearing the shift within her tone of voice.

Maybe it was her newfound coldness in her blood that was giving her strength or the fact that the black dog that she'd hit must have taken a liking to her, for it stepped in front of her and snarled, its hackles raised, poised to lung at the man if this dark-haired, shifty-eyed stranger so much as made one move at Tonks.

Tonks continued to retreat, discreetly sliding her fingers underneath the strap of her black knapsack, sliding the bag off her shoulder, fully prepared to pelt the creep and make a run for it.

"I promise, doll, this won't hurt you, I'll make it quick and painless for you. Just give me my _dog_ here, and no one will get hurt. But if you don't, then well…" the dark-eyed man said, shrugging his shoulders and shooting her a bone-chilling grin.

Tonks bristled, grinding her teeth in annoyance, feeling grateful the dog hadn't budged an inch even as the man advanced on them.

_Someone ought to let him know he's a terrible liar_. _Might as well be me if this is the only chance I get to tell this creep this_.

"You're...you're a terrible liar, you jerk! You know that, right?" Tonks snapped meanly, her temper getting the better of her as her unbridled fear began to manifest itself as anger bubbling deep within the pits of her churning stomach.

The dark-haired man grinned. "Yeah?" He made a motion of stretching out his hand as though to caress Tonks's cheek, and she slid the strap of her bag off her shoulder and swung the bag in one swift movement at the exact same time the black dog bounded forward, latching its powerful jaws around his arm.

The hit was a powerful one as her bag smashed into the guy's face, squashing his nose, and Tonks barely managed to repress her victorious grin as she heard his nose break, thanking God she'd thought to pack the leftover Thermos of potato soup for her dinner break tonight.

The thing was heavy and packed a heck of a hit, she could tell the thing made an impact by the sickeningly satisfying crunch of the little bones in the man's nose breaking, and a steady stream of crimson erupted from both of his nostrils as the man hollered and roared like that of an enraged bull or even a dragon in those fantasy movies Tonks loved to watch so much on the weekends.

"You—you broke my nose, you—you little _witch_!" he bellowed, his voice muffled by his hands now cupped over his face, his fingers slowly staining red with the man's own blood.

A tiny flicker of relief washed over Dora as she saw blinding tears welling in her eyes and streaming down his gaunt cheeks.

It would definitely slow him down, give her time to run for it.

Tonks turned on the heel of her boot just as a loud, ear-piercing scream shattered the air behind her, and she could tell without even having to turn her head and look that the black dog that she had hit with her bike had sunken its sharp teeth into the man's arm. " _Merlin's Beard! Get him off of me!_ _ **GET IT OFF**_!" he screamed.

Tonks scrambled backward through the leaves as the fight between her would-be-attacker and the dog came even closer. The man balled his strong hand into a fist and hit the dog in the side of the head.

The black dog whimpered and reared back, though the animal quickly recovered, his jaws going straight for the man's throat. Tonks squeezed her eyes shut as a muffled scream rent the air, along with the startled cries of a few passersby in the park, in shock and horrified at what was going on.

Tonks opened her eyes, not wanting to look at the worst of it, and was grateful that by the time her gaze landed on him, he had retreated a few feet away, so she could not see the extent of the damage of the dog's mauling that her savior dog had given him.

The man stumbled to his feet and fled through the park, running as fast as possible until he disappeared from Tonks's sight.

Tonks parted her lips open to scream for someone, anyone to call the cops so the authorities could come and arrest this creep, though she didn't get the chance as she heard the unmistakable sound of the stranger swearing at the top of his lungs as he tripped behind a particularly thick bush covered in thorns and he remained on the ground and didn't bother to get up a second time.

The dog bolted as though to run after the man, though a loud shout, coming from somewhere behind him, made the dog stop in its tracks, turning to look at the voice, almost… _weary_.

" **PADFOOT**!" came a man's voice, his tone sounding clipped and angered beyond belief.

Tonks felt the familiar stab of a fear prick at her heartstrings as she looked towards her left for the source of the new voice belonging to this new stranger in the park at night. Tonks was panting and gasping short, ragged breaths as surges of adrenaline vented through her veins.

At first, her vision was blurry as a sickening sense of nausea crept through her veins, out of focus, only able to discern basic shapes and colors in front of her. Blinking rapidly, Tonks stared off into the direction her would-be-assailant had fled, still too stunned to find her words. The shapes and colors solidified around her into something of recognition.

Or rather, to put it more accurately, a _someone_ , who was regarding her with an incredulous look of shock. "I…" she turned to stare at the new arrival, feeling the strength in her knees start to give out, and before she could collapse to the ground and possibly faint in front of this new arrival, Tonks felt herself sink to the ground and sat on the edge of the dirty curb.

She glanced down at her ragged, chipped, broken, and bleeding fingernails as she parked herself on the curb of the sidewalk and waited for the worst of her nausea and fear to subside within her. Tonks hadn't paid much attention to the pain her entire body felt when she'd crashed her bike, but now that she was seemingly no longer under any kind of threat and relatively safe for the time being, everything felt like it ached, her body screaming in protest.

If this and the cut above her brow and the lump at the base of her skull were her worst injuries, Dora couldn't really complain.

"Miss?"

She flinched at the male voice that came from her left. Whoever's voice it was, the man's voice was rich, smooth, and melodious.

_The kind of voice a man ought to have_ , Tonks thought wildly, and despite her mind screaming at her not to engage yet another stranger in a conversation for the rest of this evening, much less look anybody new in the eye, her curiosity won out in the end, and against her better judgment, she looked.

She looked up from the absentminded preening of her ruined nails to see a lean, young man, quite young in his early thirties, if Tonks had to pinpoint a guess as to the man's age, not much older than her, his light brown hair windblown and off his face. His lined, scarred face was serious and tired, but his light brown eyes were warm and kind.

In his hand, he carried what used to be one-half of what looked like to Tonks a broken black leash. "He yours?" Tonks asked bitterly, glancing at the hulking black dog resting by her feet out of the corner of her eye, momentarily stunned when the dog's ears perked up at the arrival of the new man and his tail started wagging. She blinked, thinking this man must be the dog's owner, he _had_ to be. Tonks was surprised she could even croak out a phrase with how hoarse she sounded.

The man looked momentarily surprised as the dog nudged Tonks's hand with the front of his long snout and looked like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or not as Tonks scratched his ears.

Though if he was stunned, he was good at hiding it, as the man quickly recovered, coughing once to clear his throat. "Ah, yes, _sort_ of. In a sense. I was… watching him, and _well_ …"

To emphasize his point, he held up the leash in his hands and grumbled something inaudibly under his breath before turning away for a moment, seeming to need a moment to himself.

A quick scan of the man's clothing told Tonks this stranger wasn't a member of the London police force or medical personnel. He wore a pair of grey trousers and a threadbare light grey sweater that looked a little too big for his lean, thin frame. Beneath his jacket overtop the sweater was a long bulge that she suspected resembling a long knife of sorts.

_For his protection_? Her pale grey irises darted to the nearby passerby that was wandering the sidewalk, going about their business. In the distance, what sounded like an ambulance siren wailed shrilly. _Oh, good. Someone already called the cops, so I don't have to_ , Tonks thought darkly, biting the wall of her cheek as she dared to peek back over her shoulder towards the thick bush the man had fallen into, where she hoped the man still lay quite unconscious.

She slowly swiveled her gaze back to the new arrival, thinking it strange that no one seemed alarmed by this new man's presence. Tonks exhaled long and slowly through her flaring nostrils, taking advantage of the momentary silence to study his features.

The man's light brown hair flecked with bits of grey was nothing spectacular, though she thought it odd a man in his early thirties if she were right as to her guess on the bloke's age, would have so much grey speckled within.

_Maybe he's had a hard life…_ She made another quick scan of his threadbare clothes, the premature lines on his face, and the grey in his brown hair, and thought her initial assessment of his life to be correct in this regard.

Tonks furrowed her delicately shaped brows together as her sharp eyes raked over three diagonal slash marks that looked like an animal, maybe the same dog that she'd hit with her bike tonight had given him a long time ago.

They were horrible-looking, and Tonks saw the man visibly flinch and momentarily look away as light pink speckled along his cheeks the moment his ears perked up at the little hiss that involuntarily left her lips. Three, jagged, diagonal pink lines, shocking pink against his pale, if not-slightly peaky looking skin, were prominent on the man's face, twisting and marring an otherwise handsome face. All three of them began at the edge of his browbone, snaking their way down the man's nose and across the right side of his face, ending at just the edge of his lip, tugging it down slightly.

_Not handsome by any means_ , Tonks thought. _But rugged_.

He must have noticed her initial wariness because he knelt down into a crouch and sat on the curb alongside her, though mindful enough to keep a respectable enough distance between the two of them. Tonks stared as the dog's tail started wagging the moment the man reached out a calloused hand and patted him on the head.

"You did a number on him, Padfoot, didn't you?" the man murmured in a dark voice, speaking more to the black dog than to Dora Tonks at the moment as his gaze followed where Tonks's eyes still stayed locked on the rose bush.

Tonks's eyes narrowed as she studied the dog's strange behavior, and she was sure, yes, she was sure, the dog's chest puffed out as it seemed to preen at the compliment, looking proud of himself.

The man noticed Tonks studying the black dog out of the corner of his eyes and offered her a kind white smile. "Forgive me," he murmured in a quiet, reserved voice as he offered a slight incline of his head. He had a slow, gentle voice. A kind tone. Seemingly almost shy, with a tenor-like quality to his voice.

Tonks bit her bottom lip and stuck it out in a slight pout.

She certainly hoped that this stranger didn't expect that a disarmingly white and kind-looking smile that made him look years younger than his actual age was going to be enough to make her trust him because it _didn't_. But it did settle a little of her stomach's anxiety, though her heart gave a strange flutter at seeing his eyes.

"Remus Lupin," he offered by a way of a gentle greeting.

"Dora. Dora Tonks, but please, just call me Tonks," she murmured, hoping this Lupin character would just take the hint and address her by her surname. She'd never liked her first name.

"Your Ted Tonks's daughter?" Remus Lupin questioned, his already pale features whitening a fraction of a shade more, which for a moment, worried Tonks, despite her initial unease of the man. She couldn't quite explain it, but something about this bloke's eyes wasn't quite right. Weren't exactly, well… _human_.

She supposed he was good-looking enough or would have been being it not for the monstrous three scars that littered his face and marred what would have otherwise been handsome features, but it was the man's eyes that frightened Dora Tonks the very most.

Never before had she seen such pools of rich light brown before. It reminded her of hot cocoa on a cold winter's morning. And yet, there was a fleck, just a hint of gold at the edges of Remus Lupin's irises that suggested something dark lurked beneath the surface of the man's eyes.

A wave of smoldering, fathomless anger seemed to simmer just below his eyes' surfaces. A fit of anger and fierceness so ferocious, so breaching, that Tonks wasn't sure she could come up with an adequate description of it.

These were the eyes of a man who was both assertive and strong-willed. And it more than a little unnerved Tonks right now, considering what she had very narrowly just escaped was it not for this dog intervening to save her life, this Padfoot.

"I—I am," Tonks heard herself confessing, though, in her mind, her voice sounded distant and rather faint, thinking this strange and not at all a coincidence that two men tonight, two men who were more or less strangers in her eyes, knew of Ted Tonks.

She flinched as the dog's ears perked up and his tail gave a brief wag or two before settling down at the mention of her father. Tonks furrowed her brows as she gingerly rubbed the egg-sized lump at the back of her head.

_I must have really hit my head hard…that's—that's the only explanation for all of this tonight_ …

The young woman shirked away as the man dared to scoot a fraction of an inch closer, with this Remus Lupin bloke seeming to want to get a better look at the cut above her right browbone.

"That looks like it hurts," he pointed out matter-of-factly, though Tonks could swear something within the man's eyes softened as he looked at her.

He looked as though he wanted to reach out and touch it or offer some form of physical comfort. Though Lupin froze the moment he witnessed Tonks's body stiffening the second he made a move to get closer, and the hesitation at the thought of him sitting next to her must have been evident on her face.

But the man seemed to relax a little bit when she let her body relax, though she allowed for about five feet of space between the two of them, with Padfoot, her savior for the night, resting comfortably between them, his tail wagging.

"I've had worse," Tonks answered with a shrug as a dark look flitted across her ashen features as she thought of some of the worst days at her job when she had to duck to avoid the cook throwing something at her in one of his foul moods most times.

The man blinked owlishly at her in confusion, clearly unsure how to take her response. Tonks almost smiled at her achievement. He looked as though he wanted to ask her for an explanation, but clamped his mouth shut and decided against it.

"You won't have to worry about that man anymore, Miss Tonks, he...he will not be bothering you again, I can promise you," Lupin murmured thoughtfully, a pensive expression on his lined features as he rested his chin in his hand, looking grim.

"Why?" Tonks frowned, feeling the unease start to churn within the pit of her stomach again. "Has something…" she paused, feeling suddenly unsure of how to continue. "Happened?" she finally asked, not sure she wanted the answer.

The man was silent and reserved before speaking again. A dark look had clouded over the man's light brown eyes, and he took on a faraway look in his eyes, as though remembering something.

He drew in a careful breath before answering Tonks, not meeting her gaze.

"He's _dead_ , Miss Tonks. That's your answer as to your ' _why_.'" He wasn't exactly shouting his words at her, but nor was he particularly pleased either, as he turned to look at her.

This unexpected news hit the young pink-haired waitress like a punch to the stomach, and her voice came out breathless, a strangled attempt at speech. "Huh? Wh—what? But… _how_?!"

She hadn't even seen anyone approach the bush where the man had fallen, and it hadn't taken the London police force long at all to arrive on the scene, the ambulance not far behind them, either.

Remus Lupin sensed her discomfort and raised a hand meant to calm her down. "Don't worry. You had no part in this, Miss Tonks," he murmured calmly in a smooth, almost seductive tone.

"Just—just Tonks," she stammered weakly, glancing sideways at Lupin out of the corner of her eye and attempting to shoot him a weak smile, though she felt it looked more like a pained grimace.

Tonks slumped forward in relief and buried her head in her hands before moving her hands to run through her hair. Regardless of what that creep's intentions had been, Tonks hadn't meant to hit him so darn hard with her bag that she'd killed him!

_Unless_ … Tonks's grey-blue eyes widened in shock and awe as she turned to look at Padfoot, who let out a low, mournful noise.

"You can thank my…you can thank Padfoot here for that," Lupin answered calmly in a voice that sent a shiver down her spine. Tonks wasn't exactly sure what this guy did for his line of work, but the dispassionate calm in the man's languid voice as he spoke about someone's murder, accidental or otherwise was…

_Disconcerting_. Tonks repressed a shudder that went down her back, refusing to let this Remus Lupin fellow see it for himself as she actively averted the man's gaze, ducking her head. She did not want this man to see how bothered she really was.

"Good…good boy," Tonks croaked out hoarsely, hardly aware of her arm going numb as she reached out to ruffle the thick mane of fur atop his head. Padfoot let out a bark in response.

Lupin grunted thoughtfully in response to her compliment. "If you ask me, I'm glad that man's dead. Any Death Eater like Rookwood deserves his fate, especially one with ill intentions."

Tonks spluttered and almost choked on her own tongue. _Ill intentions_. Well, that was one way of putting it, she supposed.

She let out a tired sigh and rose to her feet, wincing at the stiffness in her joints as she did so, rolling her neck to crack it and doing the same to her wrists, noticing how Remus Lupin flinched as her bones cracked.

Though something the man just said gave her pause. "A Death Eater? What...what's that, sir?" she questioned, her frown deepening as she raised her eyebrows, looking up at Remus Lupin in confusion as the man copied her movements and he too, rose to his feet, towering well above her at around 6'2, maybe even 6'3, Tonks guessed quickly.

Lupin's face paled and drained of color as he made a quick scan of the intuitive young girl with the bright bubblegum pink hair.

Tonks pursed her lips into a thin line as she got the impression her new acquaintance was doing some very quick thinking now.

"D—don't worry about it, Miss Tonks," he stammered, a light pink blush speckling along his cheeks as he pointedly looked away. "It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is he's dead."

Tonks parted her cracked lips to snap at him, but he quickly corrected himself. " _Tonks_ ," he added, emphasizing her surname. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he watched Dora Tonks like a person patiently waiting for an ice cube to melt as Tonks narrowed her gaze and shot him a frosty glower.

"You're angry," he remarked in his calm manner that only infuriated Tonks and made her blood boil that much hotter.

His calmness was beginning to grate on Tonks's frayed nerves.

"You're intuitive." The words tumbled out of her lips before Tonks could even think about stopping herself from saying it.

Her tone was frosty as Tonks knew her anger was more bearable to her at this moment than the fear or pain that was threatening to consume her if she couldn't manage to get a grip.

She savored the warmth her anger temporarily loaned her.

Remus Lupin sighed, pinching at the bridge with his thumb and forefinger before reaching down and giving Padfoot a light pat on the head that the black dog seemed to relax into, the dog's tail wagging even faster.

"You and I aren't getting off the best start, Tonks, but…" Here, he hesitated, glancing back towards the direction he'd come from. "I don't suppose that I could speak with your father. Is Ted home? He—he and my father were—were lifelong child friends."

Tonks blinked, looking over at Lupin in surprise. "You—you know my father _too_? What do you want to speak to him about?"

He smiled. "Oh, nothing of great importance, he's an old family friend, and I thought he and I could…catch up," he answered.

His tone was polite enough, though Tonks sensed there was something dark and lurking underneath the surface of his voice.

"Here," he murmured after a moment of awkward silence between the two of them as he shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to Tonks, draping it over her shoulders before she could so much as opened her mouth to protest. "Put this on. You look like you're freezing and I'd really rather not you get sick."

Tonks pouted, but shrugged into the jacket, grateful for its warmth, though a million and one questions darted in her mind.

Who was this Lupin bloke to her father? How did Dad know him, and what on earth could he want to speak to Ted about?

Who was that other stranger that had attempted to accost her on the way to work, and he too had known her dad?! What in the seven bloody hells was going _on_ here? What _was_ it about this stupid Friday night that hated her so much? What had she done?

Had she _done_ something, _said_ something to the wrong person to make God or whoever it was that was supposed to be watching over her upset with her? Was that bloody it, huh?!

Tonks exhaled shakily through her nose, sensing Mr. Lupin was waiting for her to respond. "Thanks," she grumbled, turning to look at Remus. "I—I don't want anything from you. I—I just want to go home," she whispered. Lupin frowned as her bottom lip trembled. It was unsettling and almost even heartbreaking to the young man (though Tonks didn't know it) to witness Ted and Andromeda Tonks's daughter feeling so obviously defeated.

He felt sure that a young witch like Dora Tonks could have taken care of herself, though he feared perhaps she'd hit her head harder than he thought when he'd mentioned Rookwood, and the young witch didn't seem to know what a Death Eater was.

Remus wracked his brain, searching for something to say that would put her mind at ease, feeling like he came up quite short.

"Look, don't take this the _wrong_ _way_ , Tonks," he began, feeling awkward even bringing this up to her, but something did not feel right in letting the young witch just walk home alone.

Not after _that_. Lupin nodded to himself, finally convinced that what he was about to offer and insist upon was the right thing before pressing on before he could lose his resolve or courage.

"And I don't want anything _from_ you, there are no strings attached to this offer…but…I could come back home with you, just to make sure you make it back home safe? I really don't think you should be alone right now. You're clearly upset, Tonks."

Dora Tonks was looking skeptical and skittish of his offer as she glowered up at Lupin with narrowed eyes, which made him feel uneasy. "I—I just want to know you're all right," Lupin told Tonks with a frown. Something about this situation felt…off.

The wide-eyed glazed look in the witch's blue eyes was wrong.

_She must be injured_ , he rationalized. _That's why her mind isn't registering the familiar words like Death Eater and Ted surely would have told her growing up about my father. She must have hit her head if she can't recognize these things_ , he thought, as his frown deepened. _I need to get her home, see she gets proper treatment_. _Ted won't like that she's hurt_.

"Just let me walk you home. Nothing else. I promise. Just please grant me the kindness of letting me walk you to the front door." Lupin couldn't stand to leave Andromeda and Ted Tonks's daughter alone right now in her emotionally vulnerable state.

Ted Tonks's only daughter hesitated, biting down on her bottom lip before speaking. "Okay," she finally agreed in a small, meek sounding voice, and did not protest as Lupin made a small motion as though to grip onto her shoulder to steer her back towards the way he'd come, though stopped himself when he noticed how Tonks flinched.

He was careful to keep his distance from her as they began to walk back, with Padfoot walking faithfully between the two of them, Remus noticed, albeit somewhat begrudgingly, though Lupin swore his friend, even temporarily stuck in his Animagus form as he was, held a slight, infuriating swagger to his walk.

It was almost as if Padfoot were _enjoying_ this, seeing Lupin suffer in the company of a beautiful young witch, he surmised.

But his own comfort in the presence of a pretty girl beside the point, he simply could not bring himself to send her off on her own right now. Miss Tonks needed someone to be with her, and as far as he could tell, from what very little he knew of Ted's daughter, she didn't seem to have anyone else but her father.

As he walked alongside Ted and Andromeda's daughter, he could only hope that he wasn't making a huge mistake by agreeing to walk her home, with Sirius right by their sides…


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

**TED** let out a tired sigh as he slammed the lid of his callbox shut, stalking his way out of the newly-repaired elevator, and made to head for his and Dora's shared apartment, thinking about his poor sweet daughter and the mess he'd inadvertently led her into. He should have told her the truth a long time ago when his Meda was still alive.

Perhaps if they _had_ , then maybe…maybe… He felt his smile disappear as he stared inside his desolate apartment, thinking that it was much too cruel, that he was meant to suffer in the loss of his wife, and knowing that sooner or later, he felt quite certain that his daughter deserved to know the truth, though the moment it was out in the open, Dora's life would change irrevocably, and in a way not for the better.

Ted Tonks shut his eyes tightly and ground his teeth together in anguish before turning his head to look towards the open door of his apartment, the sound of a familiar thumping noise that could surely only belong to one person filled his fatigued eardrums.

He let out a tired groan as he shuffled towards the door, his feet filling like lead and no longer taking directions from his own mind, which were currently telling him to forsake Moody at the door and slam it right shut in his gnarled face and tell him to bugger off and leave him and his daughter well alone in _peace_.

Surely, it wasn't much to ask? Oh, but apparently, it _was_ , as the footsteps drew closer.

Though before he could turn towards the newcomer and tell old Alastor to get lost and not darken his doorstep again while Dora still lived at home with him, he was met with an all-too-familiar face, one that he hoped he wouldn't lay eyes on again.

"Hello, Albus," he merely grunted by way of response. He flushed upon seeing Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody standing in the doorway, as he turned away to avert his gaze from the two wizards.

Resentment at their arrival welled within his chest, as hard as Mr. Tonks tried to suppress it. He did not want them here complicating his daughter's life anymore. She did not need that kind of strife.

"You've told your daughter _nothing_ , Ted," Moody barked by way of a harsh greeting that immediately set Ted's blood aflame in his veins. Ted Tonks merely grunted in response and turned away.

Ted decided resignedly after a moment, upon hearing no sound of leaving footsteps to reach his eardrums, that Albus and Alastor were not simply going to leave on the basis he was denying them entry into his and Dora's home, that he could not ignore Dumbledore forever.

Turning reluctantly to face the pair of older wizards, the man was finally able to grunt out a rather unwelcoming and cold, "Hello."

Dumbledore was looking pleased, his cobalt blue orbs twinkling behind those half-moon spectacles of his.

"Hello, there, Ted. I was just coming to speak with you pertaining the matter of Nymphadora," Albus pressed cautiously as the wizened old warlock took a half step into the threshold of their apartment and looked around Ted's darkened living room with a small measure of disdain, before pulling his wand from his robes and giving it a sharp wave.

A burst of light flooded from the tip of his wand and shot straight from his wand towards the ceiling light bulb above Ted's head, flooding the room in an almost blinding white light that made Ted hiss and had to shield his eyes momentarily from the brightness.

"There, that's much better," Dumbledore said cheerily, though his expression turned quite grim. "May we come in for a moment, Ted? The matter is quite urgent, I'm afraid," he asked quietly, and it quickly became clear to Ted by the sudden wavering note in Albus's voice that this was not a man who was used to asking permission.

Ted shrugged. "Sure." His voice, he was quick to realize, sounded uninviting. Andromeda would have wanted him to show kindness.

So, he reluctantly cleared his throat and tried again. "We'll talk in the bedroom, but if Dora comes home for any reason, I don't want her to see this," he growled, removing his wand from an interior pocket of his blue janitor's jumpsuit, gesturing with a curt wave of his arm for the two uninvited wizards to follow him down the hall.

"Very well." Dumbledore sounded surprised when he answered. Moody had no smart remark to give, merely grunted in response. "That's quite all right, Ted, I think you'll just want to hear what we have to say, as it concerns your daughter's safety, Mr. Tonks."

 _I think that I won't_ , Ted Tonks thought bitterly to himself, but when he reached his and Meda's bedroom, he lowered himself into the chair in the corner where Andromeda used to sit and read books.

Dumbledore appeared extremely hesitant for a moment or two, before the wizened old wizard evidently found his words, and began to speak. "They're coming, Ted. There have been…rumors. Bellatrix and her husband, Rodolphus, they escaped from Azkaban, Ted."

Ted felt his blood cool in his veins and something within him tighten. He had promised himself he would put his old life far behind him the moment that it was revealed when Dora was two years old that she possessed no magical abilities of any kind at all.

"How? When? How much time do I have left?" he pressed urgently, unable to keep the note of desperation from his voice.

"Not long," Moody barked in his usual gruff voice, and Ted couldn't be sure, considering the grizzled old Auror almost never displayed any other emotion on what was left of his face other than a horrible annoyance, but he swore a flicker of sympathy darted through the man's one good piercing blue eye, making him feel sick.

"She—my—my daughter, she cannot stay here," Ted groaned, burying his head in his hands, hating the fact that this day would come, that he would be forced to say goodbye to his precious girl.

No. He mustn't be selfish. Her life was at stake, not just his. He would agree with whatever Professor Dumbledore demanded on him, though that did not mean that Ted was necessarily going to like it. "She—she needs to _leave_ , Albus!" Ted exclaimed rather violently.

"I'm aware, my good man, that's why Moody and I have come. We've come to escort your daughter to a safe house. She will stay with Black and Lupin for the time being, until such other arrangements can be made. To throw Lestrange off your trail, I suggest you go into hiding, my old friend, and do it soon," Dumbledore announced gravely, no hint of joking on his face.

Mr. Tonks almost dreaded asking the question but did it anyway.

" _When_?" he managed to gasp out in a hoarse little croak, actively averting his gaze from both wizards' piercing, sympathetic stares.

It was Moody who broke the silence first, not looking at Ted when he spoke, but rather out the window, his magical eye fixated on something outside of the complex walls that Ted couldn't see at all.

"Tonight. And you're going to want to break the news to your daughter, Ted, because she and Remus Lupin are just right outside."

* * *

**FURROWING** her brows into a frown, Tonks kept her gaze fixated straight ahead of her, the strange dog who she now knew at least was called Padfoot walking dutifully alongside her and Remus Lupin, still trying to wrap her mind around what happened.

Some man who called himself Rookwood addressed her by name and had made mention of her father, of Ted, and now this Lupin bloke who _seemed_ kind enough, knew him _too_?

She swallowed thickly down past the lump in her throat uneasily and forced herself to come to terms with the fact that if the dog walking alongside her hadn't gone for the man's throat, and done her a solid favor just now, then she would be…be…

 _Dead_ , her conscience finished unhelpfully, chirping at her from the darkest corners of her mind. She shoved those horrible thoughts away, accompanied by the sick feeling of dread and satisfaction that Tonks felt at thinking this Rookwood was dead.

Though just as immediately as the unpleasant thought flitted through the forefront of her mind, it was replaced with a crushing sense of dread and guilt. Like it or not, a man had been viciously attacked to death by a dog, and she thought she had no right to be relieved about that, no matter what his 'intentions' were.

 _All_ human life was precious, or so her parents raised her to believe. Though considering what that man back there had almost succeeded in doing to her, were it not for the dog who'd saved her life, she was beginning to doubt that particular belief.

"Tonks." Remus's surprisingly soothing voice effectively pulled Tonks from her thoughts, drawing her attention to him.

"Mmm?" she murmured, stifling the startled cry at having been caught off her guard as she craned her neck upward to look at him. She blushed at the intensity of the young man's hard gaze.

He cocked his head to the side to meet her eyes, and his expression was unwaveringly patient and understanding, despite how all throughout the seemingly long walk home, Tonks had been, well, for lack of a better word, distracted, but who in the seven bloody hells could blame her, after what just happened?!

"I know you have a lot on your mind, and you are probably not quite sure how to feel about the fact that the man who attacked you is dead, but it means that you don't have to worry about him anymore, Tonks. And…"

Here, he hesitated, biting down on his bottom lip as a flicker of uncertainty darted across his features. "I'll do what I can to protect you. Your father would surely never forgive me if I allowed any harm to come to you, Tonks."

Tonks's curiosity was piqued as the fair-skinned woman furrowed her thin eyebrows. This was the second or third-time Lupin had mentioned his father being acquainted with her dad in times past, though Ted Tonks was not a man who talked about himself, much less his past, and that included former friendships.

Whenever she would try to broach the subject, her father's face would always almost pale in shock and he'd change the subject.

Tonks had quickly learned after the first couple of failed attempts not to broach the subject with Dad, however, she couldn't help but wondering if upon seeing his old friend's grown adult son in their apartment complex if that would get him to open up and finally talk more about himself. He'd not been the same since Mum's death.

Her mind wandered as she looked at him. This kind man, Remus Lupin, was escorting her home—to her and Dad's flat, and even though ordinarily, Tonks would have been excited to be bringing a kind-looking bloke home with her, she couldn't manage to make herself feel anything positive.

She still felt a sickening sense of dread and nausea in her stomach, not the exhilarating, warm, fiery glow that she ordinarily felt in the pit of her stomach when around someone new, and though this Lupin fellow had given her no just cause to distrust her, Dora was still very much on edge from a moment ago, when Tonks thought for certain she had been going to die.

Tonks shifted uncomfortably under Lupin's strangely sympathetic gaze.

"Do you know who he was? You mentioned his name was Rookwood?" Tonks questioned, trying her hardest to ignore the shiver that traveled up and down her back, and she knew it had nothing to do whatsoever with the cold temperature.

"Yes. He…has a _history_ , you could say," Lupin said, seemingly struggling to find the right words, sinking a lot of meaning into that particular word, and Tonks shuddered inwardly in fear.

"What did he want with _me_? I—I'm just a waitress at The Grill on the Green, I'm a _nobody_!" Tonks couldn't help but to ask the one question that burned on the tip of her tongue, the one question that Dora wasn't sure she wanted an answer too, but her words had escaped her lips before she could stop herself, and Lupin was going to give her an answer, judging by his expression.

He paused, halting in his movements, the black dog stopping at almost the exact same time. Tonks furrowed her thin eyebrows as she couldn't help but notice how the beast almost looked mad.

Lupin's frown deepened though the man did not necessarily look angry, but rather, thoughtful. "I have a few ideas, and each one of them more unlikely than the last one, but unfortunately, none of them make any sense to me, not without speaking to your father first. Something tells me Rookwood sought you out with the intention of going after your dad, I don't think it was you he was interested in," Lupin murmured, stroking the two-day growing stubble along the edges of his closely-cropped beard.

Tonks froze, feeling rooted to the spot as her fingers curled over the strap of her bag. "You think that he was…that he…" she whispered, her pale grey irises widening with shock and horror.

Lupin nodded, confirming her suspicions and Tonks could swear she felt her heart leap up into her throat. She tasted bile.

Remus Lupin's expression turned grim. "He was watching your family, Tonks. I think it's safe to say that you and your father are in grave danger, and it's much more imperative that I speak to him. I promise, Tonks, if we could just talk to your father, everything will begin to make more sense to you. I hope," He paused, swiveling his head to look at the apartment complex. "Is it this one?" he questioned in a mild, polite tone as he looked up.

Tonks nodded before realizing Lupin couldn't really see her, given how dark it was.

"Y—yes," she stammered, suddenly feeling her palms go clammy and a bead of sweat drip down her temples. She wondered what Dad would think. This would be the first time she brought a man home with her to their flat.

Though considering her father was the topic of discussion tonight, she couldn't help but feel a surge of anger, coupled with a mixture of antagonizing hurt and a slight sense of betrayal.

There was something her father was keeping from her, he was blocking her out, and Tonks hoped he would be honest with her.

 _Maybe with Lupin here, he won't brush me off this time and Dad will have no choice but to tell me the truth tonight,_ she thought, biting down on her bottom lip as she glanced at Lupin out of the corner of her eye as she trudged to the front door, who she noticed, was eyeing her complex building with great interest.

Lupin said nothing to her as she flung open the complex's front door, murmured a half-hearted hello to the doorman, Carlos, who looked like he wanted to say something to Tonks the moment he spotted the bleeding gash on her forehead and ask after her missing bike, though he must have thought better of it, for the man promptly closed his mouth and fell silent, nodding.

She didn't speak until they reached her and her father's apartment door, which was creaked open slightly, which Tonks thought odd. Dad always remembered to lock the door, even when he was home. Lupin smiled at Tonks's exasperated tone.

Though his attention quickly slid from her face to the door, and he commented on her father's setup with mild interest. "Three deadbolts and a metal door, huh?" he questioned mildly.

"We—we didn't choose the door," Tonks stammered, lifting his chin to meet the man's light brown eyes, wondering just where he was going with this. "Just the deadbolts," she joked.

"I could come in for a moment," Lupin offered. "…if you want," he added after a small pause. "I can always come back to speak to Ted another time if you're not comfortable inviting me in, but it's up to you," he said quickly, apparently taking note of the fact that Dora was feeling incredibly conflicted right about now. "I'm not trying anything, Miss Tonks, I can promise you that. But I _would_ like to speak to your father, tell him what's happened to you, who that man was that found you in the park."

The black dog called Padfoot nuzzled her hand with its black snout and gave a short, short bark, as if in agreement with him.

Tonks blinked owlishly at the dog's strange, almost humanlike behavior, before giving her head a curt shake to clear her mind.

"Okay," she finally nodded, thinking that if nothing else, the two of them needed to usher the dog inside before the sound of it barking drew the attention of their neighbors, who would surely tell the landlord, as their little family had quite the reputation in the complex for being, well… _odd_. Strange. Aloof.

And the last thing she and her dad needed was Murry getting on their case again, with the landlord needing one final excuse to want to kick them out and get them both evicted from here.

Tonks gritted her teeth as her hand curled into a fist around the brass doorknob.

She knew inviting a person into your home was a common courtesy, but this was her and Dad's place, and it was really the only place in all of London that she felt truly safe, and now with two persons of interest seeming to want to talk to her father, she couldn't quite shake the cold feeling of dread from creeping its way up and down her spine, chilling her blood.

The only person Tonks had ever let into their apartment was Norah, her coworker at work and one of her best friends, maybe her _only_ friend. She assessed the man standing next to her carefully as Tonks tried to ascertain whether or not Lupin was a threat.

He hadn't made her feel quite so nervous back on the sidewalk near the park when there had been plenty of other people nearby.

But now that it was just the two of them alone in the hallway outside of her flat's door, Tonks couldn't help but notice Remus Lupin was fit for a man in his early thirties, and if he wasn't at least 6'2, maybe even 6'3, at best, then he was just shy of that.

The dog by his side let out a tiny growl, as if impatient with Dora to open the door, and the strange behavior of the man's dog did not exactly put Tonks's already frazzled mind at ease, and then there was the fact that he expressed an interest in talking to her father, though about what, the man seemed reluctant to say.

 _Oh, no, Remus Lupin isn't an intimidating man at all_ , her mind offered up sarcastically before Dora could stop the unhelpful quip.

"May I come in?" Lupin asked politely enough, though Dora wasn't fooled. There was just a hint of unease to the man's quiet, reserved, almost tenor-like tone that also suggested to the young woman that he was growing slightly annoyed with her hesitation.

Though when Tonks shifted her gaze to lock eyes with the man, his light brown eyes glinted with minor amusement, as if he had caught onto the fact that Tonks was more or less sizing him up. She swallowed down thickly past the growing lump in her throat and shoved aside her mental anxiety and stepped aside, twisting the doorknob, and widening it for him, letting the dog go first.

She winced as it sauntered in, thinking Dad wasn't going to be happy that she had let a stray dog into their apartment, but considering the dog had more or less saved her life tonight from a would-be-assailant in the streets that seemed to know her name, Tonks assumed the two of them had bigger problems to worry about. She was not going to be a chicken in front of Lupin.

Remus Lupin stepped through the small doorway, having to duck his head slightly so as to not hit his head on the doorway's rim, stopping just inside the living room to take in the Tonks family's humble living arrangements with mild curiosity.

His sharp gaze absorbed every detail, and Tonks could see a questioning flicker behind the man's intelligent eyes as he looked.

Their flat was admittedly not what the man had expected, she could see their home had stumped Remus Lupin to no end. It wasn't embellished with bright, colorful family photos. To him, it must have seemed minimalistic, cold, and sparse, though Tonks couldn't manage to pretend to care at this point in time.

Not after the night that she'd had so far. "Dad?" she called out cautiously, raising her voice sharply as she looked around the room for any sign of her father, heading towards the kitchen.

Lupin cast his gaze around too, Tonks noticed, looking towards the hallway that led to the bedroom with narrowed eyes before turning towards the kitchen table and noticing one of the chairs had been pulled out.

"May I?" he questioned politely. Tonks swiveled her gaze back over her shoulder and nodded. It was only when she gave her permission did Remus pull out the chair and sank down into it with a tired sigh. "Thank you," he said at last.

"Do you want something to drink?" Tonks questioned, trying to ignore the feeling of unease that swooped in the pit of her stomach as she swore she heard her father's voice coming from his and Mom's bedroom, along with two other voices as well. "I—I don't any coffee to offer you, but I do have fruit punch, water, and chocolate milk," she murmured, turning back towards the fridge, and yanking open the old thing as the door groaned.

"Chocolate milk would be lovely, thank you," he started to say, though whatever Remus Lupin had been about to say next was promptly cut off at the sound of raised voices coming from the hall. Tonks stared, wide-eyed at the source of the other voices as they, along with her father's unmistakable baritone, drew closer.

"What are _you_ doing here? You're supposed to be at _work_ , sweetheart! You need to _leave_!" came her father's astonishing voice, raised to a level and sounding angrier than Dora had ever heard.

Tonks froze, parting her lips open to speak as she set the glass of chocolate milk down in front of Lupin where he sat at the table. Frustration and anger rose within her dad's croaky voice that held a slight warble to it that Tonks had never heard in Ted.

It took her a moment to realize her father's anger was directed at her as his eyes narrowed as he waited for an explanation as to why Tonks had come home early, having not gone to her shift.

"I…I hit this dog with my bike, Dad. I—I hit my head but I'm _okay_. Some creep attacked me in the park, but the dog saved my life. I—I think he belongs to this man. Remus Lupin here walked me home. He—he says you knew his father? A—and the man in the park his name was Rookwood, Dad, he says he knows us."

Tonks swallowed down hard as her words hit their mark.

He looked… _furious_ , and for a moment, Tonks didn't know how to place the older man's anger as his gaze flitted from his daughter, his face paling at seeing Lupin sit at his table, nursing his glass of chocolate milk, though he looked suddenly wary as he lowered his glass, having been about to take a sip of milk.

"Hello, Ted, it's been a long time. It's good to see you again, Mr. Tonks. I wish it were only under better circumstances, sir," Remus said pleasantly enough by way of introduction, though Ted Tonks's hardened, and ice-cold gaze was not fixed on Remus, as Dora had thought, but rather, at the hulking black dog now resting lazily on its stomach at Remus Lupin's feet.

He turned towards Tonks, who was staring wide-eyed in disbelief at the pair of strangers standing just behind her father.

One of them tall and lean and the oldest man she'd ever laid eyes on, with a long greying beard that reached his middle, dressed entirely in a set of pristine grey robes that looked out of place in the section of downtown London where they lived, and the other, well, she hated to admit it, looked like someone who'd walked off the set of a horror movie.

The younger man was horribly scarred, missing an eye, and in its place was a mechanical eye that had a horrible tendency of swiveling of its own accord, making Tonks feel slightly queasy.

Lupin noticed her staring, and offered a light little smile. "Might I have the pleasure of introducing you to Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody? They're...friends of your father's," he hastily explained, his lips curling upwards into a soft but hesitant smile as the pair of men inclined their heads towards Dora Tonks, before returning their attention back to Ted.

Ted's face paled of color, what little of it was left, and he staggered backward and would have tripped over the chair that Tonks had pulled out so her father could take a seat, were it not for perhaps one of the oldest men Tonks had ever laid eyes on reaching up with gnarled but firm hands to steady his shoulders.

"Wh—what is _he_ doing here?!" he bellowed, raising a shaking hand to point a finger at the black dog, who let out a low whine.

Lupin, Tonks noticed, had half-risen from his chair, and was holding out his hands in front of him, almost as if in surrender. It did not escape Dora's attention how exhausted the man looked.

"Ted, sir, please, we—we need you to calm down. Sirius is _not_ here to hurt you or your daughter," Remus quickly explained, though not even Lupin's calm demeanor was enough to tamper down the growing look of anger in Ted Tonks's eyes.

Before either the older man with the stupidly long greying beard or the scarred bloke with the wild, swiveling blue mechanical-looking eye standing alongside her father could react, Ted launched himself towards where the dog lay sprawled on the floor with a cry of rage on his lips. He would have reached the dog too were it not for the scarred man bounding forward and restraining him, wrapping both of his gnarled hands around Ted Tonks's middle.

Tonks let out a grunt as he struggled against the older, shorter man's grip, though despite her father's savage snarling and growling, the man remained unfazed by Dora's father's outburst.

" _Get him out of my house! He—he's dangerous, Lupin_! I don't want that—that monster anywhere near my daughter! **LEAVE**!" barked Ted in a gruff, hoarse voice that sent a chill down Tonks's spine as she stared wide-eyed at her father's violent behavior as Ted looked towards the kitchen table for something to throw.

" _Daddy_!" Tonks admonished, shocked, and more than a little unnerved by her father's shift in his usually calm, collected demeanor. "It's—it's just a dog, he—he won't hurt you!" she squealed, launching herself forward, moving to stand in between the dog called Padfoot and her father's wild attempts to attack it.

"H—he's not a dog, Dora, he's—he's dangerous!" he yelled, though he almost immediately ceased his attempts to attack when the older man with the long, greying beard spoke up rather softly.

"This is not the way, Ted, and you know this. Your daughter has a right to know everything. There are parts of all this that even _I_ don't understand, and you mean to tell me she knows _nothing_?" he questioned, his voice growing uncharacteristically cold as he looked at Ted with a look Tonks could only call anger.

Ted ceased his wild struggling in the scarred man's arms, his face now white and ashen. He suddenly looked very tired and haggard as his gaze flitted back towards the dog now standing behind Dora, as though he were seeing a ghost, and just maybe he was.

"Get him out of here, Lupin, Moody! He—I'm not going to have a ruddy _Animagus_ in my home who's a bloody _murderer_!"

" _Animagus_? What's an Animagus? Who's Sirius? The—the dog's name is _Padfoot_ , Dad, I—I think you're getting confused! I'm the one who hit her head tonight, but _you're_ the one who's starting to spout nonsense and it's starting to freak me out! Wh—what's going on?" Tonks blurted out, unable to take much more of being kept in the dark and ignorant. "Daddy? Tell me!"

Lupin turned slowly to look at the pink-haired young woman in astonishment before taking a step towards Ted Tonks to look at the young woman's father with a rather admonishing glower.

"You truly have told her _nothing_ of her family's past?" he said scathingly, while Ted shot a look of daggers the dog's direction.

Lupin closed his eyes, the grim expression on his face leaving him as his scarred mouth slumped downwards in exhaustion.

"I didn't anticipate this conversation was going to be hard," he muttered darkly under his breath before turning to look at Tonks. "This is not going to be an easy conversation for you to listen to, Dora, but you _must_ hear me out," he implored, a pleading tone to his lilt that immediately made Tonks's ears perk up in intrigue and curiosity. "Your family is not what you think them to be. Your mother, Andromeda Tonks was a witch, and your father is a wizard—"

" **STOP**!" Ted's roaring baritone voice rent the kitchen as Tonks's face paled in shock and surprise. Lupin, for his part, did not flinch as the man turned to look at Dora's father, who was regarding Remus with narrowed, hateful eyes full of scathing.

It was clear to Tonks that her father did not trust Lupin.

"Her mother and I kept this from her for a _reason_ , Mr. Lupin, for her to know the truth would only hurt her! I won't have Dora be a part of that life, and you need to stay quiet! Shut. Up. Now," Ted began speaking a shaking voice dripping with anger and hurt. Tonks blinked owlishly at her father, feeling her mind swirl in confusion as her mind struggled to process her dad's statement.

 _Witch? Wizard_? _What the bloody hell is going on, Daddy_? Had she heard her dad correctly, just now? She was starting to think she must have hit her head harder than she thought, and this was all a strange dream Tonks had yet to wake up from.

Tonks could hardly believe her ears, it was too much, too much for her frazzled mind to process all of this at once. She'd thought she'd been one to keep the occasional white lie from her dad, but now, it felt as though she hardly knew the man, her own dad!

Yet, there was no time to ponder, to think on what her ears had just heard that her mind was struggling to accept as the plain truth because Remus Lupin's quiet voice rent the air again.

"Your daughter has a right to know the truth, Mr. Tonks. Death Eater Augustus Rookwood attempted to attack her in the park tonight, and if it weren't for Sirius saving her life, she would have been dead," he snapped, a harsh bark to his voice that made Tonks flinch as she realized the man's patience was being tested. "Judging by the fact that he was able to find your daughter, there's a good chance more of them won't be far behind him, and she deserves to know the truth before something _else_ happens tonight. You owe Dora the _truth_ , Mr. Tonks, and you know it."

Ted stopped struggling, though his narrowed and hollowed eyes were still fixated on the black dog by Remus Lupin's feet angrily.

"Fine, I'll hear you out, Lupin, but if we're going to tell it, let's do it quickly, there's not much time left. They're—they're coming," he spat, making no attempt to disguise the hatred that lingered in his tone and completely ignoring Lupin's look of shock as the younger wizard's face paled. "But if you're going to tell it, then tell Black to quit _hiding_ , to be a good little dog and come out to _play_ ," he sneered, pursing his lips into a thin line before violently wrenching out of Moody's grip, collapsing into the chair near him. He looked towards Dora and smiled sadly. "I…I'm sorry for keeping this from you sweetheart, but your mother and I thought it was best. You're going to want to stand back," he grumbled, as the dog lazily stretched and strode forward. Tonks, not sure at all what was going on, did as she was told the moment her father shot her a truly withering stare.

Tonks stiffened as she moved to stand next to Lupin, who shot her a sympathetic smile that she couldn't manage to return.

She let out a startled scream, clamping her hands over her mouth in shock, feeling bile in her throat, as the dog's form began to twist and distort, and within a mere matter of seconds, in its place stood a thin, lean, and emaciated-man with sunken in cheekbones, darkened, hollowed eyes, and a shoulder-length mane of matted dark hair that looked like it had needed trimming a long time ago. Tonks was even more surprised with this new stranger turned towards her and offered her a sardonic twisted smirk.

"Hello, cousin."


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

**THE** scream escaped from Tonks's lips before she could stop herself, as she clamped her hands over her mouth and fought against the bile rising in the back of her throat.

What was going _on_? Did she need to go to the hospital for her concussion?

She didn't bloody like it. She didn't like it at all. She really must have hit her head harder than she thought if she'd just witnessed a _dog_ transform into a _man_ before her very eyes. Wincing, she gingerly reached up a hand and touched the egg-sized lump at the base of her skull, wondering if it would do her good to get any ice.

The man who'd called himself Sirius quirked a dark brow Tonks's way, his darkened, hollowed gaze flitting from Lupin to her father.

"Remus, it's good to see you," he murmured to Lupin standing beside Dora by way of a greeting, though he sounded rather ashamed, as though he wished it were under better circumstances.

"Likewise, Sirius," Lupin answered in a pleasant enough voice, though Tonks swore it was laced with a hint of caution as his attention turned towards Dora, who felt like her almond-shaped grey eyes were about to pop right out of their sockets as her mind struggled to process that a dog had just turned into a man in her and her father's kitchen in their flat, and her father was shooting her a furtive, guilty look like he had been _hiding_ something.

She wanted nothing more than to get rid of the burning feeling in her stomach.

" _Dad_ , a—a dog just—just transformed into a man in our kitchen. I want an _explanation_! I—I don't like it, I—I think I'm sick and I need to go lie down or—or sit for a second. What is going _on_ , Dad? When are you going to tell me the _truth_?" she finally managed to croak out in a low, hoarse gasp, and the moment she felt the strength in her legs start to give way and her knees buckle from beneath her, she strode forward and collapsed into the chair.

Tonks swore she felt Lupin's hand rest on her shoulder, meant to calm her down, though she felt anything but. It was a miracle she could even find her voice.

"I…" she stammered, though her voice trailed off as she felt so dizzy, so horribly _dizzy_.

She flinched the second Lupin's slightly calloused hand came down to rest on her shoulder and before Tonks could fathom what was happening, violently jerked out of his grasp and away from Remus.

" _Don't_ touch me, Lupin," Tonks managed to gasp out in a pitiful mewling croak as she blearily lifted her head to try to look at Ted. She turned her head away, and this was a good thing, for if she would have looked into Lupin's eyes, she would have seen the beginning brimming's of an antagonizing hurt laced in his eyes.

Tonks felt her arms go weak as she buried her head in her arms and collapsed onto the surface of the table, not caring if she was being rude. As far as she was concerned, her father owed her an explanation. Her lungs refused to fill with air, and though she wanted nothing more than to lift her head, meet her dad's gaze, and demand her father start talking, who the bloody hell this man was in their kitchen, just why he was dangerous, Tonks lacked the words.

Her mind reeled as it raced in uncontrollable directions, struggling to process what nonsense her father was spouting about wizards.

"Sweetheart…" Ted calmly approached and took the seat next to Tonks. His calling of her was enough to inspire a response as Dora's head lifted, and he cringed as the father watched his daughter's eyes brim with unshed, glistening tears, a look of immense horror and confusion on her face.

There was the reluctance at first, but Tonks let the man rub small circles into the small of her back, and before Ted could fathom what was happening, Tonks flung her arms around the man's thick neck like he was all that Dora had left.

Ted Tonks held his only child close to his chest, Dora's warmth spilling through the layers of his blue janitor's jumpsuit and white t-shirt underneath. He patted her short pink hair as she sniffed into his shoulder.

"Shhh, Dora, love, I'm right here. I—I know this is a lot for you to take in right now, but you're _safe_ , I _promise_ it's all right."

She made an odd, strangled noise at the back of her throat and pulled apart from his warm embrace and back to study Ted's face. To Ted (and everyone else's) relief, her eyes grew soft, and he could almost see the love behind her pools of pale grey, flecked with just a hint of blue at the edges of Dora's eyes that were so like his Meda's.

Ted could read the unspoken confusion and dawning horror as she stared intently at the towering, bony form of Sirius Black before her.

Was it true? Was this man _really_ a _murderer_? He could almost see the cogs in her mind turning as her grey eyes flashed in questioning.

"D—did you…did you _kill_ someone? Why did you come here?" she asked, her innocent question directed towards Sirius, who was regarding Remus Lupin with an apprehensive look, though Sirius very nearly jumped out of his skin at his cousin addressing him.

Black's darkened eyes narrowed as he slowly turned his head to regard his last surviving cousin, staring at Dora as though he had never seen anything quite like the pink-haired girl before.

He could not help but to bring his eyes up to meet hers. There was fear, as Sirius had initially expected, but something else within her.

Something that he did not recognize, and he could tell just by one look over at Moony that Remus had noticed the strange look too, and was equally, if not a little bit more stumped on it than he was.

"No," he growled in a rough, coarse faint voice that sounded as though he had long since lost the use for it. "Not _yet_ ," he snarled.

For a moment, as Tonks looked into her blood cousin's eyes, she became frighteningly disoriented, the few terrible moments of panic seizing her heart as concern wound its way around her throat, causing the emotion to flutter rather painfully within her chest.

Goosebumps spread over Tonks's body at the dark look he was giving her. There was no way she and her dad could fight Sirius off.

The man, even thin and emaciated though he was, was ill in the head and could probably easily overpower them both if they ran. Even if she wanted to fight him off and take the risk to allow her dad a chance to escape, Black was going to kill her. She was sure of it.

The man was on a mission, she could tell by the hollowed stare in his eyes and the darkened looks the creep kept shooting her father.

His mind was made up, set on something and he was sure to react violently if he didn't get it, whatever 'it' happened to be for Black.

Tonks looked up at Sirius as he cautiously approached the spot where Ted and Dora were seated at the kitchen table. His eyes were burning and dark as they looked down his slender nose at her and something was made painfully clear to her. He was going to kill her.

Dora's eyes widened as she bolted upright from her chair so fast in her haste to put as much distance between herself and this murderer that she overturned it, the wooden chair crashing to the linoleum floor with a loud, resounding clang that made them all flinch away.

"Where's Meda?" The stranger, whose face was now mere inches from her own, demanded harshly, the tip of his nose touching hers.

His hoarse, croaking voice was rumbling with barely controlled anger. Tonks couldn't answer Black, only able to stare up into the dark-haired stranger's rage-filled face, terror gripping onto her voice.

" _Dead_. A few years ago, now. For what it's worth, though I don't like you, Black I am…sorry. I—I know how much my Meda liked you, back in the day, but that doesn't _change_ anything, Black. I want you _out_ of my house. _Now_. You need to leave," Ted announced gravely, though his voice was shaking with uncontrollable rage upon seeing a convicted murderer underneath the same roof as his baby girl.

Black's head whiplashed sharply upwards at hearing her father's words.

Tonks froze, feeling her breath catch in her throat as she swore a flicker of sympathy and an emotion akin to sadness darted through the man's sunken-in eye sockets, though as quickly as it had come, it was gone, replaced once more by a torrent of fiery anger.

_Damn_. Sirius wished he could think of something stronger to say, as his breath was coming in short, his chest tight as he processed the sickening news that Andromeda Tonks was dead.

For a moment, Sirius actually thought he was going to faint here in Ted's kitchen.

His blood was roaring in his eardrums, the world felt like it had ended. Sirius barely heard Moony's quiet, cautious voice reach his pounding eardrums, though Lupin's voice sounded faint, muffled.

"Sirius, please don't do something _stupid_ ," Remus urged quickly, with the faintest hint of desperation as he noticed Ted Tonks's daughter was wildly looking around the room for something to defend herself with. "You—you don't want to scare her. Tonks—she's got a _right_ to know everything. you owe all of us the _truth_!"

"Why did you tell me she was _dead_ , Ted, if not for me to _do_ something about it?!" Sirius roared, seizing on tufts of his dark hair as anger swept over the escaped convict in a blackening, swirling rage.

He almost launched himself at Andromeda's husband, though he spotted the overturned chair that Ted's daughter had accidentally knocked over in his haste and picked up the chair and threw it.

Sirius Black was making such a wounded noise that belonged to neither animal nor man, a heart wrenching, hair-raising sound of pain and betrayal and utter agony at hearing the death of one of his last surviving family members to have ever treated him with any modicum of kindness. He wished he could tear his heart out of his chest, anything to make it _stop_.

Sirius was only half-aware of Lupin kneeling by his side, trying to put an arm over his shoulders as he sank to his knees, but Sirius ripped away from Remus's gentle grasp and bolted to his feet.

He flung himself against the wall of Ted Tonks's kitchen. Prudently, neither person in the kitchen did not attempt to go anywhere near Black until the man's tempest had run its course. Dumbledore stood silent, saying nothing, and it was only when Sirius knelt, motionless, gasping raggedly, did he motion with a curt jerk of his head for Lupin to move closer.

"Sirius, I do _apologize_ , but we must ask you to _calm_ _down_."

Sirius's head whiplashed sharply upward, his lips parted open slightly as if to say something in his anger to Professor Dumbledore, though his hardened gaze landed on Dora Tonks instead, who'd instinctively moved in front of her father and had flung her arms out in front of him, as though she thought that would protect the man.

"That's—that's _not_ true!" he bellowed, his grief surging through his chest and manifesting in the form of his anger. "You—you _lie_!"

Tonks watched in horror as the man's hollowed eye sockets seemed to darken.

She'd have thought them lifeless were it not for Black's eyes flashing dangerously as he stalked towards Tonks, ignoring the sudden protests of the other people in her kitchen that Black knew.

"Sirius, don't be a _fool_!" snapped Lupin in a voice that sounded cold and not at all like the suave, mysterious gentleman Dora had met earlier near the park. "This isn't the way, and you know this!"

Tonks seethed, her attention fixated solely on her cousin, still terrified by the man's volatile temper.

"Look, buddy, I—I don't know _who_ you think you _are_ , but you need to get _out_ of our apartment before my dad and I call the cops on you! Y—you transformed from a dog into our apartment and now you're screaming bloody murder and throwing things! You're ill in the head and you need _help_ , but whatever you want from Dad, you won't get it from him, or from me! I'm calling the cops if you don't leave! _Get out_!" Tonks shouted, her fear manifesting in the form of raw, unbridled anger as she felt the familiar fire hot-seed of anger start to bubble within her chest.

She winced as the dark-haired escaped convict, if what the others were saying was true, his eyes narrowed as he stalked towards her angrily, a muscle in his jaw twitching. "Wh—what are— **HEY**!"

Tonks never had the chance to finish. This dangerous murderer moved at a lightning speed that she was quite sure was _inhuman_ and suddenly there was a rather long wooden knife held against her throat. She started to panic, immediately thrashing against the man's clearly brute strength, despite how lean and malnourished he looked, her fingers curling into claws at the man's hand that held the weapon, trying in pain to push the appendage away from her throat.

But the convict reached out with his opposite hand, latching onto her shoulder, steering her towards the kitchen wall, slamming her against it. In the man's anger, his skin was waxy-looking, and when he pulled his lips back to smile maliciously at her, his teeth were yellow from the effects of not being able to take care of them while incarcerated in prison. It made Tonks's insides revolt in disgust.

" _Sirius_!" came Lupin's sharp, admonishing voice from somewhere behind her, though she couldn't see the man's face, but Dora liked to imagine that he was probably just as angry and shocked as she was.

" _Shut up, Moony_!" Sirius barked in a low, hoarse growl as he turned his head sharply in the direction of his friend's voice. "I'm warning _all_ of you, I've just about reached my _limit_ , my fingers are _twitching_ , Remus! Meda _can't_ be dead! They—they're _lying_ , these two! She—she's simply gone into hiding!" he snarled, swiveling his head back around to look at Tonks, pressing the strange tip of his long wooden knife even harder into the column of Tonks's throat.

His hand not wound around the strange looking knife currently pressed against Tonks's throat came up to rest on her already-bruised shoulder where she'd banged it from falling off her bike, and squeezed, not hard enough to hurt her, though in actuality it did, considering how much the purple and black splotches along her skin had spread from her nasty fall off her bike when she'd hit this creep.

" _You. Lie, cousin_ ," he growled, his face now mere inches from her own, his voice rumbling with seething, barely controlled anger.

Tonks attempted to open her mouth to answer but could only manage a series of pitiful mewls and terrified squeaks.

The only thing she could manage to do was stare up into the man's waxy, terrified face, terror seizing her voice and causing her chest to flutter in panic.

The stranger's darkened eyes were lit up with such a torrent of burning anger, betrayal, and hurt at the plain fact that her mother was dead, that it caused Tonks to shrink back against the kitchen wall as far as she could possibly go. His lips curled into a fierce snarl at the movement, with the man looking like he wanted to kill her here.

_Kill_?! Tonks's eyes widened and dilated in horror as her instincts took over. She kicked out against the man as hard as she could, catching her would-be-killer squarely in his lean, tattooed chest.

Sirius Black let out a guttural growl and struggled to keep a hold of Dora's shoulder, but Ted Tonks's daughter was no longer in any state of mind to be reasoned with.

She had been _chased_ , _interrogated_ , and almost _killed_ twice tonight, and this was Tonks's breaking point.

Tonks latched her slender but sturdy hands around Black's wrist that still held the strange wooden knife, thinking that she'd never seen a weapon of this sort before, wondering where he'd gotten it, before quickly pushing away the inappropriate thought and forcing her frazzled and panicked mind to focus on one thing only: _escape_.

She clawed at the man's weapon in a sense of utter desperation, digging her nails as deep into the man's skin of his wrist as possible.

He grunted angrily at what she was doing, but she didn't notice it. Tonks let out a guttural growl and kicked out at the man again, and this time, caught this dark-haired murderous piece of trash square in the face.

Tonks barely stifled a triumphant grin as she felt the bloke's nose give out from the blow that she had just dealt him and a sickening _crack_ of the bones in the man's nose filled the air in the kitchen then.

Out of the corner of her eye as the man's grip on her bruised and hurt shoulder loosened, she saw the wooden knife that had been previously holding her throat hostage slip from his fingers and fall to their linoleum kitchen floor with a loud, resounding clattering noise.

He let out a guttural bellow, staggering backward and roaring like an enraged dragon as he clutched at his now clearly broken nose.

_Yes_! She had done it! She was free.

Tonks took the opportunity and bolted from the room, ignoring the protests of those other men, Dumbledore, Moody, and Remus Lupin, pleading with her to stay put, but she paid neither man in her and her father's place any mind.

Their shouts and arguing only became more fuel for the panic and vent of adrenaline that was pumping through her veins, propelling her to bolt for her bedroom, trying to pack what little stuff she could, and make a run for it.

She wasn't _safe_ here with these men. Tonks glanced back only once, and it was more out of concern for her father than anyone else here. Those other men could choke for all she cared, she didn't know either one of them!

The bloke calling himself Sirius Black and was supposedly her blood cousin was bent over in obvious pain, still hollering at the top of his powerful lungs in indignation, though his darkened, angry eyes, remained fixated on Dora Tonks.

She saw his lips move, though no words followed whatever it was that he was trying to say to her, but she didn't have time to mull over it as yet even more panic and raw adrenaline hit her body so hard and fast that Tonks didn't have a chance to understand what happened.

Instead, Tonks did the only thing that she felt she could in this case and did not look back.

She ran.

* * *

Sirius balked as he clutched a hand to his bleeding face, trying to stem the flow of blood that leaked from his nostrils with his fingers, and he knew instantly his own cousin had broken his nose just now.

He remained hunched over while trying to get his bearings back, while also keeping his cousin in his line of sight, wanting to make sure Tonks didn't do anything so bloody foolish like try to leave.

The girl wouldn't get very far at all if Tonks were to try. Lupin jumped to his feet and made to go after the girl, though Sirius shot out a bloodied hand and latched onto a fistful of Moony's sweater.

Lupin shot him something of a disgusted look at the fact that there was now a bloodied hand-print on his grey sweater, though his best mate made no remark, for which Sirius was grateful for that.

"Y—you have _no_ idea what that girl is capable of, Moony," Sirius growled thickly, still struggling to stem the bleeding with his remaining hand. "What if my cousin hurts herself, or you, huh?"

He relinquished his grip and fumbled in the tattered, frayed pockets of his prison robes for his wand, pointing it at his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. Merlin's Beard, but he was going to hate this.

" _Episkey_!" he murmured darkly, and he bit down on his bottom lip to stifle the scream as the bones of his nose crunched into place, and it felt as though something warm were trickling down his face, but by the time Sirius lifted a crimson-stained hand to his nose to feel for himself if the bones were properly healed, the warmth had faded.

"What a _mess_ you've made, Sirius," Professor Dumbledore stated curly, stowing away his own wand in the pockets of his grey robes and righting his posture. "Very well done _indeed_ ," he snapped, shooting a rather rueful expression at Sirius over the rims of his half-moon spectacles. "I'm sure the poor woman is running herself scared right about now, thanks to you. You should not have been so rash, Sirius."

"I didn't see _you_ make any attempts to restrain her," Sirius shot back angrily, not at all pleased his own cousin had broken his nose.

A broken nose! The last time he could recall his nose had been broken was when he and Regulus were just boys.

They'd had quite a row that turned into a bloodied Muggle fistfight, resulting in a broken nose on Sirius's part and a nasty black eye on Regulus's end.

In any case, it took their parents to wrestle them apart, and the punishments, the whippings afterward for their behavior hurt even worse than Sirius's broken nose at the time.

He winced at the memory and let out a low growl, shaking his head to clear his mind.

"We should look for her before she does something impulsive and hurts herself or _worse_ , runs into more trouble," Remus murmured in a quiet thoughtful voice, shooting an admonishing look Sirius's way that almost made Black wilt, before Lupin turned his attention to Ted. "Mr. Tonks, sir, if you would like to come with me to find her? I don't think it would be safe to let her leave your flat, not without her knowing the truth, and not with one of us by her side as an escort, and something tells me that if she sees one of us," Here, Lupin gestured with a curt wave of his arm towards Sirius, Dumbledore, and Moody, "then she will only panic further, but you're her father, Ted. I think _you're_ the one that will need to come with me if we have a hope of calming your daughter down, Ted."

Ted Tonks quickly nodded his agreement, though he said nothing as he stalked towards the kitchen doorway's entryway, but not before risking one last glance over his shoulder at Sirius Black.

"Get out of my home, Black. I'll let you stay just long to explain yourself to the rest of us, and after that, I want you _gone_ , Sirius. The sooner we sort out this _mess_ , the better. My Dora doesn't _need_ you."

The older wizard's baritone voice cut through the air like a knife.

Still fuming, Ted turned on his heel and made to go down the hallway towards Dora's room to talk some sense into his daughter, with Remus Lupin trailing close behind at his heels, hoping to cut off Dora Tonks before the frightened young woman made any attempts to leave their flat unprotected and without an escort.

There was very little chance Ted Tonks's daughter could escape the flat with five wizards on the lookout for her, at least, that was, if Tonks didn't attempt to break the rest of _their_ noses _first_.


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

**TONKS** couldn't believe this had happened to her. She leaned against the wall of her bedroom in her flat, exhaling a deep, shuddering breath that felt more like a half-choked sob of misery.

What the bloody hell was going on? She must have a concussion. Yes, that was it, that was the only explanation, or—or her dad had gone nutters and had indulged in a little too much beer after work.

"Dora?" Tonks let out a tiny cry of alarm as her head whiplashed sharply upward as a fresh surge of adrenaline vented her towards her dresser, where she grabbed her knapsack she'd flung precariously on top of the piece of furniture and started throwing what little clothing she could manage to fit in her bag, not wanting to stay around if there was a crazy mass murderer under their rooftop.

That was her father's voice all right, laced to the brim with concern, though Tonks didn't bother to look in his direction, not even when she heard the man's footsteps draw nearer as he dared to enter into Tonks's little bedroom.

She and Dad had to get _out_ of here, it wasn't safe right now, though Tonks halted in her movements when she felt the strong, tempered hand of her father's grip in her own.

Tonks paused, blinking back a fresh wave of tears, hardly registering the bloke from the park, Lupin, standing in the doorway of her room, seemingly apprehensive to answer.

Instead, he glanced around her threadbare room with interest, no doubt taking in the fact that Tonks didn't have too many pictures hung up on the walls or on top of her dresser of her family. Parents, friends, a pet, the like.

Tonks briefly noticed the man looking with something akin to pity and for a moment, felt a surge in her temper.

"I don't _do_ frilly things," Tonks snapped, not sure what she felt the need to defend herself or explain away her choice in interior decorating to the stranger from the park.

"I noticed," Lupin chuckled as he dared to meet her gaze, though his light little smile faltered slightly as he realized that Dora Tonks was not smiling at him and fell silent.

Too tall for her room, Lupin remained slightly hunched over as the man moved slowly forward, crossing the threshold of Tonks's bedroom, taking in the surroundings with a sharp, inquisitive eye that still managed to unnerve her.

Something about his eyes was _off_. Not quite right. Beastly, in a way? No. No, that wasn't quite right. _Wolfish_.

Remus Lupin's eyes were brown, with just a fleck of gold at the edges of his irises, that when caught in the right light, would flash, signaling something dark lurked just beneath the surface, though what it was, Dora wasn't sure if she cared to find out, and she wasn't particularly sure that she liked the almost… _hungry_ way he was eyeballing her.

It made her shiver, though not with fear, almost a…a frustrated…desire. Once Tonks realized what was happening, what she was doing to herself as she was close to losing her sense of self, drowning in the man's eyes, Tonks gritted her teeth and shook her head to rid her mind of these obtrusive thoughts and looked away from Lupin.

Tonks had not known the man long, maybe an hour at best, if even that. More like thirty minutes, if she was being honest with herself, but as a waitress considered herself a good judge of character and the man's disposition, knew Remus Lupin probably never missed a thing, and Tonks felt her cheeks begin to warm as she too inspected the messy state of her bedroom.

She'd been so busy pulling double shifts at the café the last couple of days, she'd been sort of haphazard when it came to making her bed. It was chaotic to some, but Tonks found it rather comforting. She loved the knick-knacks on her desk and shelves, her love for the color purple of her quilt on her bed.

If anything, Tonks felt confident her room, this one safe space where she could truly be herself, was a true reflection of her nature, and to hell with anyone who disapproved of it.

After a moment, Tonks inhaled slowly. She focused her attention on Lupin for a moment, satisfied with the shock she saw displayed on his scarred but rugged face. This was the difference between them, yes.

_Don't forget the man claims to be a wizard_ , piped up a dark voice in the back of her mind. _So does your father._

Tonks flinched, biting down on her bottom lip as that damned voice in her conscience brought her back to reality.

"Show me," she heard herself say as she swiveled her gaze back to her father, tearing her attention away from Lupin before she could allow herself to get lost in the man's light brown eyes that reminded her of hot chocolate on a cold winter's day, thinking his eyes to be the man's best feature.

Lupin exchanged a cautious glance with Ted Tonks, who sighed and closed his eyes wearily, drawing a similar long piece of wood from the interior pocket of his blue janitor's jumpsuit, gave it a wave with a well-practiced flick of his wrist.

Tonks's mouth dropped open in shock as her room began to immediately tidy itself, the bed covers straightening and righting themselves, her clothes she wore to the restaurant for work floating off the floor, hovering in mid-air for a moment, before floating to the hamper near the front of her closet, plunking gracefully in the basket.

Ted flinched as the look that crossed his daughter's face was heartbreaking as the strength in her knees gave out and she sank to the floor the second the spell Ted had cast had run its course, using the edge of her mattress and mattress bed for support for her back as she slumped to the ground with an audible thump, a look of shock on her face.

Mr. Tonks stood dazed awhile at the girl sitting against her bed on the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest, her bright pink short shaggy hair now a striking contrast to such pale skin as what little color had been left in Dora's already pale complexion completely drained of all color.

It was his Meda at that age…fierce yet noble. It was definitely her, and Ted heard himself speak her name, but when she called back it was Dora's voice that melted in his senses, bringing the hurt father back to the present reality.

That she could not stay here, and they hadn't much time.

"Dora, love…" Ted calmly yet cautiously approached and knelt on the floor beside his daughter. He watched her eyes brim with tears and there was a heavy reluctance at first, though she eventually relented and rested her head against the crook of his shoulder as Ted Tonks sighed and draped an arm over her shoulder, pulling his girl in to snuggle.

"Why? H— _how_? Why didn't…you and Mum _say_ anything?" she croaked in an incredibly weak and small voice, and she was only pulled from her disparaging thoughts, an odd, muffled noise escaping the back of her throat as Lupin coughed once to clear his throat, though not to say anything, nevertheless, Tonks's ears perked up at the faint sound of something rustling, like a breeze.

Startled, repressing a faint cry of surprise escaping her lips as Tonks whiplashed her head so sharply upward in the direction of whatever that noise was, her lips parted slightly open as her grey eyes widened at what the man with the wolfish eyes was doing.

He was holding out his hand, though he didn't hold what Tonks now knew to be his wand—she'd seen those fantasy movies, how could she not have recognized her father's wand when she'd seen it?

Tonks shook her head, frustrated at her mind wandering so damned bloody easily and blinked rapidly at what Remus Lupin was doing, seemingly to make her feel better.

Tonks gaped, sure she looked like a fish staring so open-mouthed like this, though she quickly clamped her lips shut the moment Lupin lifted his gaze to hers, and those strangely intoxicating brown-golden eyes met her own, and once again, she found herself drowning in the pools of brown, and was even more stunned as Lupin conjured a pristine beautiful white lily in the palm of his hand.

She watched, awestruck by the beautiful display of magic as the flower bloomed and floated lazily, gracefully towards her, where Tonks reached out with a shaking hand and used her thumb and forefinger to pluck the flower delicately from mid-air, and held the pretty thing tenderly in her palm.

Tonks couldn't explain it, but she felt…strangely touched. No man had ever given her a flower. Ha! Much less conjured one by magic from nothing. She wondered if all magical folks had the ability to do what Lupin just did.

Tonks let out a shaky sigh as her father's voice drew her attention away from Lupin's intense stare that she was sure was boring a hole straight through to her heart as he spoke.

"Dora, listen carefully. I—I need you…to _listen_. I'm sure you have questions for me, and I'll try to answer them, but we don't have a lot of time, baby, so I'll make this quick. I know our life has been hard since your mother died and secrets were kept from you, but before you judge me, please just be quiet and let me speak. I'm your _father_ ," he added sternly, lowering his voice to a growl as he noticed Tonks open her mouth to speak, though upon hearing the hardening of his voice and seeing in his eyes, she clamped her mouth shut and looked towards Lupin briefly before shooting her a sympathetic little sad smile.

She glanced down at the delicate lily in the palm of her hand and stroked its soft petals with the pads of her fingers. Tonks exhaled shakily as Ted Tonks grabbed Dora by the shoulders and gave her a light little jostle. Not enough to hurt, but just enough to get her to refocus her attention. Until his daughter's feeble nod did he continue.

"I…you were born without any magical powers, baby. It's somewhat uncommon among our kind, but you're not the first. Your—your mother and I thought it best if we kept our powers a secret from you to avoid the hurt and pain it was sure to cause you. We—we didn't want you to get jealous, so we hid our powers," Ted Tonks murmured, shamefaced, as a light pink blush speckled along his cheeks. His voice cracked, and Dora could hear the dip in his baritone voice.

She had been about to open her mouth to speak, though he shot her a slightly admonishing look that suggested against it as he continued, wanting to get to the heart of the matter relatively quickly.

"It was a _stupid_ , _foolish_ thing to do, trying to keep you in the dark like this. Your mother and I _wanted_ to tell you, but to have you live in a world that you couldn't be part of seemed like the cruelest thing we could possibly do, and we never wanted to hurt you." Ted's voice trailed off as he looked at Dora.

"All this time?" Tonks breathed in hoarsely. She could not yet find her voice for all of the questions that circled through her mind, not sure where to start. "What about mum…she—she was _sick_. Could your—your _magic_ ," here, she spat the word as though she were still struggling to accept the fact that magic exists, and both Lupin and Ted knew that she was, by the horrified look in her eyes, "have saved her life? I—if it could, why didn't you _save_ her?"

"No." Mr. Tonks hung his head in shame. "Our magic has limitations. We—we can't bring people back from the dead or fix every ailment. And more to the point besides, your mother said that…the moment you exhibited the fact that you weren't like us, that you didn't have any powers, Meda, Merlin bless her soul, said that—that if you couldn't use magic, then neither should we. We suppressed our powers, moved away, and we've lived like Muggles ever since. Non-magical folk," Ted quickly explained, upon seeing Tonks raise her eyebrows in alarm as she looked at her aging dad.

Tonks slowly nodded her head at all the information, though she felt like her heart was becoming a hollow pit as she glanced down at the simple but beautiful white lily Lupin had used with his own magic to calm Tonks down.

A series of memories flitted through her mind, mostly of her mother's face, and this prompted another bout of questioning. "My—my mum's sister. Is she a…like _you_?" she asked softly, gesturing towards Ted and Lupin's wands in their hands. "Why didn't Mum ever talk about Bella?"

Ted cringed. Just hearing his wife's sister's name made him flinch, and he could tell Lupin had as well out of the corner of his gaze. "Your aunt, she—baby, she's crazy. I know you don't want to hear those kinds of things about our family, but the truth is, she's a bad person. She's tortured people. _Killed_ , even. I—there's no other word I have to describe Bellatrix Lestrange. Not all witches and wizards use their powers for good, and she's one of the few in this world that linked up with the wrong side. The dark side," he growled angrily through gritted teeth, looking to Remus for confirmation.

Tonks blinked owlishly at hearing her father's words, not sure she'd heard correctly. "What is this, Daddy, _Star Wars_? You're telling me there's a light side and a bad side to your world?" she snorted, not wanting to believe what her dad was saying. There was no possible way her aunt could be nutters, just no way at all.

"Sort of," Ted murmured, ignoring Lupin's questioning stare at the mention of one of their favorite movie series.

"What about…" Tonks jerked her head towards the doorway of her room. "My cousin. What's he done, Dad?"

Her father furrowed his dark eyebrows in a frown and looked towards Lupin, who, Ted was pleased to see, was looking as equally confused as he was.

"I don't know, Dora, but if you're comfortable with it, you're gonna have to talk to him to find out."

Her father was suddenly looking sheepish and quite red in the face as he looked towards Lupin and let out a haggard sigh, pinching at the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, looking exhausted.

"I don't know how Sirius fits into all this, Remus, but will you at least let me know? I have to go into hiding. I don't think we have long, and you'll have to catch me up to speed later, but right now, Dora needs to _go_ ," he snapped darkly.

"I think that's a good idea," Lupin spoke up quietly, his first words since following Ted Tonks down the hallway and into Dora's bedroom. He seemed to be strangely uncomfortable lingering in her bedroom for longer than he would have liked, looking like he wanted nothing more than to leave. He looked towards the knapsack Tonks had chucked by her feet and his expression became grimmer. "You're going to want to pack quickly if you can, Tonks. Get your things. We'll need to leave, and quickly. We don't have a whole lot of time left," Lupin murmured softly, who was checking his watch.

Her hackles rose in defense as the muscles in her shoulders stiffened. She wasn't sure she fancied going anywhere with any of these… _wizards_. She shuddered.

"Where am I _going_?" Tonks demanded angrily, her tone frosty, unable to keep the flickering of panic from surging in her chest as heat and spreading to the tips of her toes.

Her dad, Tonks noticed, was looking uncomfortable. He pursed his lips into a thin line and had trouble meeting her gaze. "Your aunt has escaped. She was, ah, in prison for a while for her crimes. Bellatrix _isn't_ a good woman, Dora, remember that. She—she's rumored to be coming here."

Immediately, Tonks contracted her father's panic. "But…you're _innocent_ , Daddy, our entire family's got nothing to do with her! What does she want with us?"

They should have been safe here in their little apartment, but Dora could tell by the way her dad's face drained of color that her world was about to change, and not in a good way. At least, that was the expression she got looking at him as he lurched to his feet and started to pace his daughter's room and pull out clothes, money, jewelry, other valuables from her dresser, chucking them at Tonks's feet, who took the hint and shoved them into her knapsack.

For a moment, Tonks thought her dad was going to be physically sick with how green Ted's face was turning.

"She wants to…to kill us, I—I _think_. She—she and your mother had a huge row when your mother and I first got together. See, your mum's side of the family is what they like to call 'pureblood' only magical folks comprise the Black family, and your mother tainted that when she married me. I was born to non-magic parents, and…well…"

His voice trailed off as a dark look overcame his features.

"She didn't like it," Tonks breathed in a hoarse voice, finishing her father's thought for him as Ted mutely nodded.

"You could say that," he muttered darkly. "She's going to come here next, at least that's what Dumbledore thinks, the old man out there." Ted nodded to Dora to close up her knapsack before tossing his daughter her favorite brown jacket that she quickly shrugged into, slinging the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

She let out a squeak of surprise as Ted bounded forward and caught Dora by her arm and dragged her forward, towards where Lupin stood patiently waiting, though a strangely sympathetic look on his face.

"You're going to leave with Remus Lupin. He's the son of an old family friend. He's going to keep you safe, baby. Don't argue with me, Dora, you'll do as I say, damn it, I'm your father, you're the daughter, and you'll _listen_ to me."

His voice was clipped and hard, and there was a hint of steel laced throughout his voice and in the man's normally kind eyes that told Dora for once, not to argue with him.

"You're not a witch, and you've both mastered the knack of dressing like Muggles, so it should be easy enough for you to blend in." Though he made a point of fingering a lock of her bright pink bubblegum hair and let out a low groan. "Starting to wish you would have picked any _other_ color, baby. The pink is only gonna make you stand out."

Tonks felt something ugly rise within herself as her father's gaze lingered on her hair.

"Daddy, if you would have been honest with me, I—I could have gone blonde or something! If you would have told me the pink would cause problems, then I would have listened to you! And _leave_? Why do we have to leave?" she yelled, a surge of panic screaming at her to bolt for their building's emergency exit, but not without him. "You're coming _too_ , aren't you, Dad?"

A crushing silence enveloped the three of them. Ted Tonks shook his head vehemently, his expression was momentarily relaxed and quite calm by his sudden sorrow.

"No, baby. I—I _can't_. We gotta split up, increase the chances of you getting somewhere safe. It's _me_ Bella wants to talk to, not you, sweetheart," he growled, his gaze hardening as he noticed Dora's panic. "I'll go somewhere. The Forest of Dean maybe where Bella won't find me. Times are changing, sweetheart. There's no room in the wizarding world for people like you and me anymore…"

He smiled sadly at his only child, but it wasn't enough to stem the flow of tears as they pricked at the back of his daughter's eyes. She wasn't sure what it was like for people like her in her father's world, people with no powers, which she still felt like her mind was reeling to wrap her head around all of this, it was too much, entirely too damn much, but she hoped that she'd be welcome in his circles.

Tonks swallowed down and clutched at the strap of her bag. "Where will we find you?" she asked in a faint voice.

" _I'll_ find _you_ ," he promised, briefly tearing his gaze away from his daughter to look towards Lupin. "Your house?" he murmured, an unspoken tension between the two men, though if Remus was at all surprised, the man hid it well.

"Yes. I'll keep her _safe_ , Mr. Tonks. I solemnly swear," he promised, the corners of his mouth twitching as he swore he heard Ted let out a sardonic little chuckle, shaking his head as he took a step backward, though his eyes widened in shock and horror at the sound of something exploding.

"What the h—" Tonks started to say but didn't have time to get out much more than that as her cousin barreled down the hallway, his skin pulled tautly and his face ashen.

"We need to **go**! **NOW**!" he roared in a harsh, grating bark. "Dumbledore and Moody had to get back to the Ministry, I can't take this lot on all by myself! She brought three more! Bella, she—she's _here_ , Ted, you need to _leave_! **GO**!"

Tonks felt her bottom lip begin to quiver as her eyes dilated, feeling like a small child at the moment, petulant and pleading, but she didn't think she could help it at all.

Ted, with tears brimming in his eyes, couldn't seem to speak much. All he could do was gather his girl in his arms for a tight and entirely too short hug before relinquishing his grip on his daughter and drawing his wand, holding it steady.

"I love you, Dora. Lupin, Black, take care of my girl and for the love of Merlin, don't do anything _stupid_."

A loud thudding sound bludgeoned the relative quiet in their apartment and a muffled, girlish voice called out in a taunting voice that made Tonks suddenly feel quite sick. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood upright.

"Teddy Bear… I'm _home_. Why don't you come on out and chat? There's no need to _hide_. Come out, come out and play?" The witch's voice was simpering, cold, and sounded entirely too sinister and gleeful for Tonks's liking. She thought she was beginning to understand why Dad and Mum had never wanted to talk to her about her Aunt Bella.

And that was the exact moment that Ted Tonks relinquished his ironclad grip on his daughter and almost shoved her forward towards Lupin, ignoring his girl's startled squeak of surprise as she stumbled forward on her heels, and would have fallen had Lupin not shot out an arm to catch her, but for once, Ted didn't apologize for his rough handling.

" _Go_ ," he growled to Black and Lupin angrily, holding out his wand aloft in front of his chest. His expression softened slightly as he met his daughter's gaze. "Listen to Lupin, Dora. Do what he says, _don't_ argue. And no matter what happens, baby, you don't look back. And may Merlin and God protect you lot," he said shakily.

Tonks blinked back another onset of briny tears, though nothing could have prepared her for the sight of her bedroom door being blown off its hinges. Tonks let out a scream as a flash of red light whizzed its way past her head, very narrowly missing her ear, and she bit back a cry as a horrible jet of purple light hit her father right in the chest.

Ted grunted in pain at whatever had just happened to him, his face twisting and contorting in what looked like pain as his knees buckled and gave out, and it seemed to have rendered him unable to move a muscle. Tonks was barely aware of her cousin moving to Lupin's left, his own wand raised and firing spells at the shrouded figure.

And in a moment's breath, Tonks found herself looking into the wild, deranged, dark, heavily-lidded eyes of her insane aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. She _looked_ like a witch.

Clad entirely in black, her dark curly hair was wild and disheveled, and was it not for her eyes, Tonks might have thought her aunt was once beautiful. But not anymore. Her sharp face went red from her chin to the top of her dark hair as her face flushed a blotchy red in utter anger as her aunt raised her wand to her father again for a second time as she stalked towards her father's kneeling figure, a murderous look of rage in her heavily lidded dark eyes.

" **DAD**!" Tonks screamed at the top of her lungs as her aunt lurched forward, her mouth moving and forming words, though whatever her Aunt Bella was saying to her was lost as she felt the tempered strength of Lupin's hands on her waist, a slight twist as he moved her in his grip.

There was a loud _crack_! that sounded like a car backfiring and a horrible, swooping sensation developing in the pit of her churning stomach. There was a gust of wind and Tonks tried to risk one last glance over her shoulder at her father's kneeling figure leaning in front of her deranged aunt.

She squeezed her eyes shut, tears pouring down her lids, and was grateful her scream of anguish intermingled with the sound of whatever magic Lupin and Black had used to bring her to wherever 'here' now was for Dora.

Tonks did as her father asked of her. She didn't look back. Tonks winced as the back of her head hit something hard the moment they landed. She must have struggled against Lupin's grip and caused him to let go.

She wasn't entirely sure how it happened, or that the bloke from the park and her convicted cousin were watching, but Tonks couldn't help herself as she burst into tears.

Tonks had always been so self-conscious when she cried but now, she just gave way to the enormity of her grief. She sobbed into her hands and the tears dripped between her fingers, raining down onto the floor.

Her breathing was ragged, gasping and the strength left her legs. She sank to her knees not caring about the grit that dug into her knees. She was noisy, her skin was blotched, but she did not care.

There was nothing left, nobody left, no reason to move.

And still, she screamed.


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

**AN** hour and a half later, with Sirius's help, after Ted Tonks's daughter had been administered a Calming Draught into a cup of tea that Remus had quickly brewed for her, Tonks was now seated in his father's old armchair in front of the fireplace.

Tonks didn't even stir when Lupin dropped the tray on the small wooden side table next to his brown leather chair, and in the silence of his living room, it sounded like an exaggerated crash that made his wolfish hearing flinch, though he didn't acknowledge it at all.

"Eat something, Tonks." Lupin inwardly cursed himself as he heard the wolf's voice emit from his lips and could barely hear himself think over the savage growling and snarling of the mad beast raving in his mind.

His voice was curter than he would have initially liked when addressing the girl and pressured with ire.

"I promised your father that I would look after you until he arrives, and that's what I aim to do. I didn't save your life just to have you starve yourself. Now, _eat_. _Please_ ," he added, thinking that his tone was coming across as hostile.

In the shadows of his dimly lit living room, Ted's daughter remained stubborn and unstirred, huddled into a small ball curled up in his armchair, her knees pulled up tight to her chest and her chin resting atop both her knees.

She looked like a corpse, were it not for the slow rising and falling of her slender shoulders, the one thing that Remus's eyes were seeking to examine to ensure the poor young Squib was still breathing. He breathed out a relieved breath when he saw that she was, in fact, alive.

Lupin's gaze drifted away from Tonks for a moment, landing on the second tray that he'd brought her a while ago that lay beside the new one that his wolfish, somewhat aggressive temper almost scattered, but he managed to restrain himself. The food: a large slice of pound cake, a bowl of oats, and some fruit, remained cold and untouched.

It was the second tray she had wasted, showing no signs of wanting to eat.

He breathed out slowly through his nose and tried again. "Your father is going to be all right, Tonks," he murmured in what he hoped was a calm enough voice. He swallowed down hard and flinched, hating hearing the warbling note of anger, his wolfish temper as his time of the month was drawing closer, laced in his tone. "Ted's a strong wizard. He'll be fine. He _knows_ what he's doing. Give him a couple of days, and he'll be here, Dora."

Again, his words inspired no kind of response from the pink-haired young woman, save for her silent breathing and Remus took it as an added cinder to the mad beast raving and foaming rabid at the mouth inside of his mind.

His blood in his veins began to curdle that this young woman was blatantly ignoring his attempts to help her, was Ted and Andromeda Tonks's daughter always this stubborn around other people, or was it just him and the unusual, unorthodox way that they had met in the park?

It was as though this horrible indifference were an infection that had entered into Dora Tonks's veins and it was rapidly spreading everywhere throughout her body.

His fingers dug into his palms, his teeth clenched, and, in his jaw, there were taut muscles as he let out a sigh.

And yet, even in his growing temper, there was a strange sort of pity he held for this young Squib who really was quite pretty, that he felt for Dora Tonks which Lupin didn't know where the hell it was coming from within him.

Lupin let out a haggard sigh and pinched at his temples with his thumb and forefinger, almost begrudgingly, stifling his strange, sudden urge to touch her. "What do you _want_ , Tonks? What do you _need_ from me? I'm supposed to _protect_ you and help you, but I can't _do_ that unless you tell me whatever it is that you _want_."

Nothing. She didn't even turn around to look at him, and that was when something within Lupin snapped and he could feel the wolf within himself start to take control.

He squeezed his eyes shut and fought against it, not wanting to upset her any more than Tonks already was, though it was an increasing struggle to hear that of his own voice over the wolf's savage snarling, growling in his head.

"Different food? I—I know it's not much, but I'd be happy to see what else I can manage to scrounge up. Something else to drink, perhaps? I could make you some hot cocoa if you're not in the mood for tea." Still nothing.

"Home, Mr. Lupin." Lupin's last word was left hanging in mid-air between them when her weak, hoarse voice cut him icily, thicker than a knife ever could. " _Home_."

" _What_?" he stared, hardly daring to believe it.

"I want to go _home_ ," she continued in a clipped and curt tone, though she sniffled and wiped at her nose with the edge of her shirt sleeve. "My—my dad's in _trouble_ , we _have_ to go back! Take me back _home_!" she yelled pitiably.

Though his heart briefly cried out in pain at the way she put so much emphasis on her last word, Remus paused, as this time, it was he who was at a loss for words.

His mind felt like it was reeling, beginning to race in consideration. If Bellatrix were even still in the Tonks' family's flat, there was a good chance she'd trashed the place, or set it up with various sorts of enchantments to track the moment Andromeda's daughter set foot through the doors. No. He gave his head a curt shake to clear it.

He couldn't take her back. It was entirely too dangerous. Though there was a deeper layer of him that wanted to fulfill anything that would make her smile again.

Just like she'd smiled at him in the park.

Her youthful appearance and overall demeanor of seeming like she didn't care what other people thought of her deserved a constant smile, Lupin thought, but now she looked frustrated and hurt, feeling betrayed beyond her beliefs.

"We _can't_ go back, Tonks. I promised Ted I'd keep you safe. Bellatrix Lestrange and her…" He paused, reluctant to use the word 'friends' as he doubted Lestrange had any friends. Only people she abused and manipulated to assuage her needs, "companions, are sure to be watching the place. You'd be killed the moment you step inside."

He frowned as her head slowly turned to look at him. He was even more stunned into a shocked silence when she spoke to him, raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

"Then I'll go _alone_." Her stubbornness continued to ignite the hot fire welling in his veins, hotter than any dragon or Merlin forbid, any Fiendfyre could ever flame.

He snorted, the wolf within him chuckling with a mocking tone, a thing the wolf did so naturally, that the words were out before he could think of stopping himself.

"You think I'll let you do that?" he snapped angrily. Remus restrained against the waves of staggering cold that hit him from behind as though he'd been petrified by a Stunning Spell as he merely watched her avert her gaze, and he squeezed his eyes shut the moment he felt his irises shift and flash gold, as the wolf within always did whenever it was pissed off. The audible gasp the girl gave off told him that Dora Tonks had seen it and was now stunned into silence.

He gritted his teeth together, cursing himself for it.

The wolf within him would have growled and snarled its savage displeasure, but with Ted Tonks's daughter, stubborn Squib that was testing his limits though she was, he felt like a requiem. And he hated the yielding to this strange woman, a battle he was winning, yes, but with the influence of a drug, and in this case, the drug was her.

Her scent was intoxicating. He couldn't explain it but coupled with the scent of apples and autumn, whatever shampoo she used in her hair, Dora Tonks smelled like…

_Biscuits_ , he thought wildly. _She said she works in a restaurant_.

He gave out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his greying hair before turning on his heels to go.

"You're _not_ setting one _foot_ back home, Tonks, and Merlin _help_ you if you even think about trying to flee this place. It's not going to end well, so don't even try," he growled, his voice low and husky as he let the wolf take over. "I made a promise to your father and I aim to _keep_ it. I don't care what I have to do in order to make that happen, but you're _not_ leaving my side, Tonks. Not for an instant."

He turned on his heels to leave her in her solitude for now if that's what she wanted, recognizing Tonks was still probably trying to wrap her mind around all of this.

Though as he placed a shaking hand on the doorframe to steady himself, her sweet, succulent, slightly husky voice that was enough to send his mind insane called out to him once more and rendered him frozen to the spot.

"Not even to pee?" she asked in a quiet, faint voice.

Lupin stammered, wracking his brain, and struggling to remember how words worked, though when he opened his mouth to speak, all that came out was a bunch of attempts at strangled speech. He swore he heard her snort a little.

The light little laugh escaped his lips before he could stop himself, though the gesture was just enough to finally inspire a response from the girl as Ted's daughter slowly lifted her gaze to meet Lupin's.

She still looked incredibly hurt at the way that they had been forced to leave her father at the mercy of her sadistic aunt, though Lupin couldn't be sure, he swore he saw a twinkling sheen develop in her blue-grey irises, feeling a faint tingling sensation start to spread throughout his chest as warmth.

He could finally get a good look at her eyes up close and they were beyond anything he had imagined them.

They were bright…full of hope and promise, despite the precariousness of her current situation, Ted's daughter was strong. He'd not seen anything quite like it before.

The way Tonks looked around the simplicity of his living room in his cottage, taking in her surroundings, the way she intently focused. Lupin didn't even need to look that hard to be able to pick up how intelligent Tonks was.

The smile tugged the corners of his scarred lips upright. "Except for that," he murmured, a slight teasing lilt to his voice now. He motioned towards the tray of food he'd left for her remaining untouched on the small wooden side table beside the leather armchair she was occupying. " _Eat_. You'll feel better, I promise," Remus muttered kindly.

He turned on his heels to head to the kitchen to check on Sirius, hoping that after over twelve years of being incarcerated in Azkaban, now that he wasn't, he would finally get some answers, and he only prayed it was the truth.

As he turned his back on her, Lupin didn't bother to look back, but if he would have, Remus would have seen Tonks pull the tray closer towards her and start to eat, with a tiny faint smile tugging at her lips as she turned around.

Tonks let out a tired sigh as she nibbled with no real enthusiasm at the food Lupin had brought her before she shoved aside the tray, too worried about Dad to eat much.

Despite her initial misgivings and trepidations about all of the things that had been revealed to her thus far, magic was real, her parents were magical while she wasn't, her aunt was nuts, though Tonks was loath to admit it, she felt…

_Content_. _Happy_ , almost. And she figured it had nothing to do with the warmth emanating from the fireplace that sent its warmth and light out into the room.

But it was the knowledge that she had someone like Lupin looking after her.

It was strange, normally Dora figured any normal person would be concerned by the fact that she had more or less been whisked away to the home of a man who was a complete and utter _stranger_ to her.

The girl had no reason to trust Remus Lupin. Even though she'd really only spoken with him the once in the park before the shite really hit the fan and her mundane world was turned upside down on its head, the man had proven himself to be someone that she knew she could trust. There was just only one thing still bothering Tonks.

His _eyes_. How whenever the man was angry, as he had been with her just a moment ago, in his agitation, Tonks had sworn at first it was a trick of the firelight, but Remus Lupin's light brown eyes had shifted from their natural brown hue to solid gold, the darkness within him surfacing, and she swore the man looked almost…wolfish.

And the scars that marred and ruined what was otherwise a handsome enough face were yet another reason to cause Tonks to harbor a twinge of caution towards the man, and the pink-haired young woman abhorred this feeling, though she suspected it was because of his eyes.

Tonks let out a tired sigh and looked around the bloke's living room with an almost critical interest. She was quick to notice that he too, was a man of minimalistic tastes. Maybe he doesn't spend a whole lot of time here.

She rose from her chair, too restless to sit still, though she hesitated before moving around the back of the chair. Perhaps he wouldn't approve of her looking around.

Tonks furrowed her brows, shaking her head a little at the stupidity of her own thoughts. Surely, he wouldn't.

Someone as kind as Lupin wouldn't mind her exploring…would he? Her curiosity, in the end, won out over the amazing sense of conflict in her mind (as it usually did) and she found herself hovering near the kitchen, where Remus Lupin and her cousin, Sirius Black, were talking.

Tonks hesitated, chewing at the wall of her mouth, finding herself nervous of all things and reluctant to clear her throat to announce her presence to the two tall men.

She suddenly did not know what to do with herself, feeling out of place, unwanted here in this man's home, and helpless as to what to do in order to help her father.

Should she move? Should she say something? Should she just stay still and silent here in the doorway and hope that one of them noticed her waiting to be acknowledged? Even though just a split second ago, Tonks had been quite confident that Lupin wouldn't mind her looking around, she was now sort of second-guessing herself.

This place was his _home_ and she had intruded. Having had enough of the bullshit and wanting a solid answer to the many dozens of questions that were burning on the tip of her tongue just begging to be asked, Tonks decided she would speak out finally, despite her initial misgivings, her brain screaming at her to shut up.

She decided to direct her first question towards her cousin and made sure to mask the curiosity in her eyes.

"Are you going to tell us the _truth_ , Black?" she demanded, flinching as her voice came out harsher than she would have liked. Tonks cringed as both men's heads whiplashed sharply upward in the direction of her voice.

Lupin was looking surprised to see her standing there, though not entirely displeased, which was good.

Black, however, was merely looking thoroughly annoyed and disgruntled at having been interrupted, as the dark-haired, sallow-looking man pinched at the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, allowing himself to sigh in a dramatic fashion as he crossed the kitchen floor and stepped over the threshold of the doorway, standing in front of Tonks.

Tonks swallowed but didn't back down.

Her brow furrowed as she shook her head, her hands on her hips before deciding she wanted to look at least somewhat intimidating and crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed in frustration and indignation.

Her cousin sneered, the edge of his lips curling upwards and he waved his wand, conjuring a spare chair out of seemingly nowhere that made Tonks startle a bit.

She bristled, a fiery heat creeping to her cheeks as she swore Black laughed at his cousin's growing discomfort, though as he strode towards the second chair he had conjured and moved it closer to the fire, she swore his grey eyes that were like hers were twinkling a little bit.

"You gonna sit down or _what_ , cousin? It's a long story, and I didn't think explaining myself to you was going to be this difficult, but since you're a Squib, I—"

But Tonks cut him off. "What's a Squib?" she asked, feeling her hackles inexplicably rise in defense. She had no idea what the hell that was, but it sounded like an insult.

Sirius parted his lips open slightly to speak, though before he could, Lupin's quiet reserved voice rent the air.

"A person born to magical parents with no magical abilities," Remus quickly explained, moving from his spot of standing in the doorway, carrying what looked to be bowls of hot, steaming soup. Potato from the smell of it, that made Tonks's mouth water. She didn't realize how hungry she was until her stomach gave a loud grumble.

"Is that bad?" she questioned, feeling relieved when Lupin motioned with a wave of his arm for her to sit back down, stunned as he set the tray in her lap before turning back towards Sirius to give him a bowl of hot soup as well.

"Not really," Sirius barked up in a hoarse voice, shrugging his shoulders as he took a bite of soup, wincing at how hot it was as the contents of the bowl went down his throat. "I mean, it's not a _good_ thing, but not _bad_ , either. It just… _is_ ," Sirius muttered after a moment, looking towards Lupin for a moment before winding his hands around his chipped bowl of soup, looking into the soup as though the food in his hands held the words that he searched for.

It seemed to take him a while to find his voice.

"I…don't really know where to begin, Moony," he murmured, either ignoring or totally oblivious to the confused look his young cousin shot him, her thin eyebrows shooting so far up onto her forehead they almost disappeared into her dyed pink hairline.

_Moony? What kind of a dumb nickname is that? His name is Lupin!_ Tonks was growing more and more confused as the seconds passed while Lupin pulled up a chair next to Tonks, suddenly making Tonks's cheeks feel quite warm and she felt quite self-conscious all of a sudden, trying to convince herself that she neither looked nor smelled funny.

Lupin shot Black an encouraging smile. "Start from wherever you want, though for both our sakes, maybe it would be best to start from the beginning, Sirius, yes?"

Sirius nodded, exhaling a deep, slow exhale before speaking, doing as Remus requested, and started from the top.

* * *

**"** **IT** was an _ambush_ , Moony. I—I confronted Peter about betraying the Potters' that day in London, you remember, but he lied. Said _I_ was the one who did it. Blew up the street, and the dirty coward cut off his finger so everyone would think that he was dead, Remus."

Lupin's attention floated beyond the armchair in front of the fireplace that Dora was now sitting in, staring numbly into the depths of the flames as though she could not hear Sirius's voice, as though nothing else mattered, dried tear tracts on her face, the only evidence that she'd been crying.

Lupin pursed his lips into a thin line and tried to shove aside the feeling of worry that wormed in the pit of his churning stomach for the young Squib, who seemed like she was shaping up to be nothing but a _thorn_ in his side, with how stubborn she was.

He was growing increasingly impatient with her, and he didn't want to be. He blamed his inner wolf for this.

Though to her credit, all throughout Sirius's explanation of Peter's betrayal of James and Lily Potter, him switching Secret Keepers without telling anyone else, and up to and leading to the part where he'd discovered from a newspaper article that Peter was still alive, Ted Tonks's daughter hadn't butted in or asked a question once.

Lupin supposed she was still just as confused, if not more so as her mind was assuredly having trouble processing all the information, but if she was confused, she said nothing and asked Sirius and Remus no questions.

Shadows from the hearth concealed half his creased and exhausted face, for which Remus was secretly grateful.

"The missing finger on the rat's toe gave him away." The sigh that strung from Sirius's throat was exasperated. "I—I don't know _how_ , but Pettigrew's at large. He is."

"But you almost had him earlier. I _saw_ it!" Lupin protested, hearing his lowered voice as crisp as red fire.

"Bastard escaped down a manhole cover since he knew I couldn't follow him down there as Padfoot," Sirius growled, still nursing his cup of soup, his face pulled tautly.

Lupin nodded. "Any ideas where you think Peter went?" he questioned, noticing out of the corner of his eyes Tonks's furrowed eyebrows and questioning look on her face. He noticed this and turned towards her.

Tonks offered Lupin a polite smile with almost little to no acknowledgment for Sirius, which he found unfounded.

Sirius gave a nod, his expression grim as his eyes briefly locked onto Tonks.

"Several, though you aren't going to like it," he grumbled darkly under his breath before his gaze flitted back towards Remus, who was ultimately looking just as confused as Tonks was, though said nothing, instead of waiting for Sirius to elaborate more. "I have every reason to believe the bastard went into the Forbidden Forest to lay low, Remus. It's the perfect place for a rat-like Pettigrew," he spat, no love lost for his former friend and Marauder. "We're going to have to hunt him, set up a _trap_ for the _rat_ ," Sirius snarled hoarsely, angrily.

Lupin nodded slowly, his brain absorbing all of the information from the knowledge dump Padfoot had just spouted.

It had taken him the better part of an hour, and that was even with his minimal interruptions from Remus so he could ask the occasional question here and there.

He looked towards Ted and Andromeda's daughter, who was now at the very least, regarding the pair of them with a curious expression, looking somewhat intrigued.

"Are you going after him? This uh, this… _rat_?" Tonks asked, sounding more curious than angry with Sirius. "This forest, why is it forbidden? Is it, like, haunted or something?" she questioned, looking at Sirius grimly.

"You could say that," her cousin replied darkly, unable to repress the shudder that crawled up his spine at the manner of Dark creatures that dwelled in the Forest.

"As much as I'm loathed to admit it, Sirius, I think you're right. I think he thinks as long as he stays in relatively close proximity to Dumbledore, he'll be safe," Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and thumb with his forefinger, suddenly feeling rather exhausted.

Sirius nodded. "I'm going after him, with or _without_ you, Moony. I need the bastard's memories to give to Dumbledore to present the evidence to the Wizengamot in that Pensieve of his. Peter will have tampered with his own memories, painting me as the villain and himself the hero."

"You're not going to go _alone_!" Lupin snapped, anger welling within his chest at the thought of his friend, who was still technically a wanted man, wandering the depths of the cursed Forbidden Forest all by himself.

He glanced towards Tonks, whose expression remained frustratingly impassive and calm, rendering it almost impossible for him to tell what the young woman was thinking, much less feeling now. "We'll go with you. I'll keep you safe, Tonks. I won't let anything hurt you, Dora."

She nodded. If she was at all frightened by the notion of running around in a haunted forest more or less, she gave no indication, and instead, asked the very question that very nearly crushed Lupin's heart right there on the spot.

"So, if we help you catch this Pettigrew arsehole, then when can I go back home to check on my dad? Or how will he know where to find if we're away?"

Lupin felt himself give a start at Tonks's words, and out of the corner of his gaze, he saw Sirius mitigated as a form of an indirect apology of sorts for a question sensitive to Remus. "We'll send word to Ted where to meet all of us."

"When?" Tonks pressed, a note of desperation seeping its way unbidden to the surface as she waited for one of them to respond to her. She didn't notice at all how both men's jaws clenched.

Remus was quick to observe how Sirius opened his mouth and shut it just as quickly. A thick discomfort, hot and searing and uncomfortable, ruptured within their chests, making their throats suddenly dry and painful, their chests tightened.

The truth was a bitch. Lupin knew this the hard way, but to have a young Squib be torn to pieces in this dire time…he found himself vexed and unable to tell Tonks that the hard truth of the matter was that Ted Tonks was probably dead at the very hands of her own insane aunt.

Sirius exhaled long and slow, rising from his chair to stand, holding Tonks's shoulders as gently as he would the finest of china, a stark contrast to how, earlier in his rage, he'd flung the confused and distraught girl up against the wall of her kitchen and held her at wandpoint after learning Andromeda had been dead for years now.

"Tonks," he began, the edges of his voice almost shaking. "I want you to listen to me very carefully, yes? Ted…I mean…your father, a—and your aunt…your father, he's—"

"—Will meet us just as soon as Ted's able like you _said_." Tonks and Sirius whirled around to face Lupin.

Lupin gave a slight incline of his head and threw a fleeting, wolfish glower towards Padfoot, almost near enough to a threat to just keep his damn mouth shut and let it be for now. The two wizards were sure to argue about this later this evening after Tonks was sound asleep, but this was _definitely_ a forgivable time to lie, Lupin mused.

Sirius contemplated long and hard, a shadow of anger and regret flitting across his gaunt, emaciated features as he chewed on the wall of his mouth, thinking.

It was only when Tonks turned back to her cousin for affirmation, it took the man a few seconds of conflicting emotions before he huffed a frustrated sigh and he nodded.

Comforted, Tonks inclined her head in acknowledgment, a tiny ghost of a smile flitting across her face that Lupin found he wished he could see more of.

Sirius guiltily returned her smile though the moment Tonks tore her gaze away from her cousin, the man's smile slid off his face much faster than Stinksap.

Though as Tonks turned her attention on Lupin, it wasn't enough to keep the small lump that bobbed down his throat. He knew eventually he'd have to tell her the _truth_ , and that was _not_ a conversation he wanted to have.

Lupin coughed once to clear his throat, desperate to change the subject and steer the conversation in a new direction, though it was up to him to steer the ship and chart a new course.

When he spoke, his voice trembled, though even just looking at Tonks was enough to force himself to summon just a smidgen of his inner Gryffindor courage and strength, propelling him to ask her a question.

"Tonks, I—I realize this might be a bit forward of me, but…would you like to come with Sirius and me to Hogwarts? Would you like to see where your parents went to school? I—I did promise your father I would protect you, Tonks, and I cannot, in good conscience, leave you here by yourself while Sirius and I deal with this matter regarding our…old _friend_ ," he asked, letting his voice trail off and fade away.

He cringed inwardly and bit down on his bottom lip. She was silent for what felt like several long moments, before the smile that cracked at the edges of her lips, revealing bright white teeth that caused Lupin's heart to flutter unexpectedly, and his mind racing with possibilities.

Dora Tonks really _was_ the prettiest woman he'd ever laid eyes on, hands down, and Lupin had been in the company of several stunning witches during their Hogwarts days when Sirius was younger and used to casually date, though preferring to go through women quicker than used parchment paper, Lupin remembered.

Her smile and the twinkling sheen in her pale blue irises were more than enough of an answer for Remus. The look Tonks was shooting both of them said her answer, without Tonks having to open her mouth to say a word.

_Yes_.


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

" **HOLY** shit." The curse escaped from Tonks's lips before she could think about stopping herself, almost the split second Black and Lupin magicked her to the edge of a lush, rolling green estate.

Apparating and Disapparating are what they called it. Way faster than her methods of transportation.

Tonks couldn't help but feel only slightly jealous as a twinge of envy pricked at her heartstrings. Her parents had both been born with magical blood, so Dad had tried to tell her, so why hadn't _she_ been gifted with it?

Was she cursed somehow? Was she a disappointment to them? Was _that_ it?

Though before she could ponder it further, a light little chuckle emanated from Lupin beside her, tearing her wide-eyed, almond-shaped pale grey irises from staring in her temporarily paralyzed state up at the magnificent castle ahead.

She cringed, biting down on her bottom lip, having forgotten to watch her mouth around her now-assigned protector. Tonks had only known the bloke a precious day at best, but she could tell he was a man who wasn't privy to swearing, nor did he like to hear it. Tonks shot the man an apologetic look with her eyes, though he sent her a kind enough smile that conveyed it was fine, that Remus wasn't too terribly bothered by it. She sighed.

"It's something, isn't it? I remember the first time I walked through those doors, just like it was yesterday," Lupin questioned in a casual enough tone, glancing sideways out of the corner of his eye as Black trudged up the walkway that led to the castle.

Well, to put it more accurately, it was more like the escaped convict of Azkaban _stalked_ his way up to it, shoving his hands in the pockets of his threadbare black and white striped prison robes angrily.

The castle was bold on the blue beyond. It stood there like it had been conjured from the storybook of a little kid with an overactive imagination. It was… _perfect_. If Tonks imagined hard enough, she could almost picture unicorns in the courtyard, because if those towering parapets and buttresses could exist, why then the bloody hell not?

The castle walls looked like the strongest thing around for miles, yet when Tonks looked closely as Lupin and Tonks made to follow Sirius up to the castle's front doors, she noticed the stones.

It was built of stones of varying shapes and sizes, each one unique. From a distance, it was a uniform grey, but up close and personal like this, it was a mosaic of humble rocks, each of them nobody would think of if they were loose by the road.

But together like this, they made up Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which in it of itself was a hell of a name, Tonks thought wondrously. The crown of the landscape and protector of an ancient people.

She wondered how old it was.

"Old," came Lupin's voice, sounding amused, causing Tonks to tear her gaze away from the beauty of the exterior of the ancient castle and back towards Lupin. He smiled, almost as if he'd been able to read her thoughts, or maybe her question had been obvious by the look of awe and wonder etched on her pale face.

He smiled at her and gestured for Tonks to follow him inside as he swung open the doors. "Ladies first, Tonks," he said politely, causing a light pink blush to speckle along her cheeks.

The door closed shut behind him with a loud, resounding clang, though Tonks barely paid it any mind. Sirius was waiting for them at what looked like the beginning of a grand-looking staircase.

The inside of the castle was just as wondrous and breathtaking, if not more so than the outside. Candles and lighted torches in their sconces lined the walls and in between the giant stone pillars that supported the high vaulting ceiling above her. Light and shadow danced together in an eternal dance.

A wide grin of wonder and awe spread across her face as Tonks swiveled every which way, trying to take in Hogwarts' splendor.

She wished she had a word to describe this feeling, and that she could…bottle it up in a little vial somehow and keep it in her jacket pocket close to her chest. It practically and almost literally stole her breath away.

"Tonks."

Tonks jumped out of her skin when she felt Lupin's hand on her shoulder, a smile of his own playing across his scarred features, for a moment, making him look years younger than his actual age of thirty-three, Tonks thought.

"What?" she asked, still in a daze and trying to take in as much detail as she could. The sharp young woman's gaze had caught onto the fact that the hundreds of large oil paintings hung on the wall of this massive great hall moved and talked of their own accord, and the giant staircase Black was standing in front of, the staircases changed.

She blinked, certain she was imagining it.

"Why don't you have a look around the castle? It's one of the finest wizarding schools in all of Great Britain."

Tonks couldn't be sure, but she swore Lupin's chest puffed out a little bit, a note of unmistakable pride in his quiet tone.

"I'm sure your parents would have encouraged you to look around. Besides," he snorted, finding it difficult not to roll his eyes, thinking of how stubborn she was, "Something tells me you'd find a way to sneak off anyway, Tonks. I'm afraid Sirius and I need to have a word with Professor Dumbledore, the old man with the long grey beard who was in your father's apartment yesterday, but…mind the staircases. They tend to _change_. Once Sirius and I are finished, we'll be happy to give you a tour of the rest of the place, and if you're hungry, the house-elves here outdo themselves at the Halloween Feast, which is utterly _exquisite_ ," he added, a note of sternness in his soft voice.

Tonks nodded her head in a silent agreement.

Lupin looked as though he wanted to say more to her, though a harsh bark from Sirius commanded his attention towards the front of the staircase. Furrowing his brows into an annoyed glower, he turned on his heels, shoving his hands in the pockets of his sweater, feeling like he was loath to leave Ted and Andromeda's daughter alone, though he had an inkling she could handle herself for an hour.

Tonks watched Lupin and Black swiftly ascend the staircase, though she swore Remus looked back at her and smiled.

She tried to return the gesture, though it felt…strained. Tonks let out a tired sigh and tucked a lock of her brightly dyed bubblegum pink hair back behind her ear and started to climb.

As she climbed, she could not help but think of Dad and— _No_! She forced her mind to grind to a halt as she paused in mid-step, pausing on the landing of one of the mezzanines that looked like it led to a dark, old, dank-looking corridor on the third floor.

Tonks had to convince her dad was a strong bloke, and stubborn and prideful as hell. If anyone could handle her aunt, it was Edward Tonks. But still. The pain of having to leave her father behind seeped unbidden to the surface and rendered the poor young woman almost unable to breathe.

Last night, as she'd slept on Lupin's sofa, had been one of those times, she was sad to admit.

Tonks had slept very little, finding the still darkness of Lupin's living room in his tumbledown shack cottage an unwanted burden, as she fought to keep thoughts of her dad suffering from her mind.

Tonks had stayed awake instead, sitting on the sofa and forcing her chest to rise and fall, sucking in the night air to try to push down the lump forming in her throat and fill her heart's hole. She tried to will her mind to think of nothing as she'd flung herself from the sofa and restlessly paced in front of the fireplace.

Her fists balled tightly against her anger, her chest heaving for calm.

She was half of a mind to grab her bag and sneak out, and once she figured out just where the bloody hell Remus lived, to call a cab or something to take her back home and save her father.

Though she'd quickly nixed that idea when she figured Lupin probably possessed some magical ability of his that would be able to detect when she set so much as one foot off of his property.

Fighting the bitter despair that Dora Tonks knew would come, Tonks battled in vain against the salty liquid that stung her eyes. She had cried enough. Dad would have wanted her to be strong, but it was increasingly difficult, not knowing if he was alive.

An open door to what looked like an old, abandoned classroom caught her eye, and she swore she saw a flash of black dart across the corner of her peripherals, catching her curiosity.

She took a cautious half-step towards the door, pushing the old wooden door open to her palm, wincing as the door creaked in its rusty hinges. She cautiously stepped over the door's threshold, looking to the left and right, and froze, seeing two sets of pinpricks.

She recognized those eyes. Those dark, umber irises burned brighter than midnight torches as the unmistakable sound of her Aunt Bellatrix's voice reached her pounding eardrums. It was a wonder Tonks could hear anything at all given the rush of blood that was now roaring in her eardrums, filled with a ringing.

As Bellatrix Lestrange stepped from the shadows, Tonks swallowed down thickly past the growing lump in her throat.

"Alone, at last, _niece_." Bellatrix turned towards Tonks and Tonks could feel her heartbeat quicken rapidly in her chest.

A voice in her head told her this was a very _bad_ idea, to go exploring on her own in a castle that was a strange place to her, that she should have insisted she come with Black and Lupin, but she found herself rooted to the floor, unable to move a muscle.

"Actually, I…was hoping you and I could…talk," Tonks said, her voice calm and balanced, hoping to stall her aunt long enough for help to arrive if anybody happened to hear them. She glanced towards the closed door. Would another teacher or hell, even a student hear their conversation and come running?

Either way, she knew she had to stall.

"We're a family, aren't we? My—my mom was your sister, for God's sake. What have you done with Dad? And how the hell did you get in here? Aren't there any guards?" As if to emphasize her point, Tonks looked to the left and right wildly for any signs of Lupin or another Hogwarts Professor.

Lupin had told her before Disapparating here what some of them had looked like in case she needed to ask a question that he couldn't answer or wasn't present for. Well. She was starting to regret not sticking close to Lupin's side. She had no idea what to do. Did she scream? Call for help? Make a run for it? What, then?

But even parting her lips open to trying to speak, just forming words felt difficult.

For a moment, she forgot how words worked. Much to her horror, Bellatrix Lestrange beamed, revealing a set of what she guessed had once been gleaming white teeth, now rotten and decayed with misuse, and practically threw herself down onto a chair, which sent Tonks's hackles raised in defense of this.

She… _wasn't_ going to kill her then?

Tonks blinked owlishly at the black-clad figure of the older witch now seated in front of her.

"I've…also wanted to get to know you, Nymphadora," Bella said serenely, and it was around that moment, Tonks's legs gave out, though Bellatrix waved her wand, and a chair was shoved behind Tonks, catching her as the strength in her legs left her.

Bellatrix waited patiently until Tonks rested her back against the backrest of the chair to take her niece's hands in hers and staring Tonks dead in the eye. Tonks winced, biting her lip.

The young woman had always felt a little uneasy under the observant and stern gaze of her father, and Mum too, whenever her mum would get pissed off about something or other, but this?

Bloody hell, this was uncomfortable on a whole new level. The darkness of Bellatrix Lestrange's rich chocolate eyes burnt with a horrible madness, unlike anything Tonks had ever seen, except in movies she and Dad would watch sometimes. The wild, unhinged look of the villains in the movies was akin to her aunt's eyes now.

Her aunt's eyes burnt with an awful, unhinged madness a madness so cruel that Tonks was dreading seeing even more of it. Tonks swallowed, trying to silence the warning bells triggering alerts, red flags in the darkest corners of her mind, deriving from what little ounce of bravery she had left within.

"What have you done with my dad?" she demanded, trying to shrug her hand out of her aunt's grip, but she found she couldn't. Lestrange's grip was strong, her body rejecting it.

"He's… _safe_." Bellatrix looked somewhat suggestively towards the ceiling, a wild flame appearing in her heavily-lidded dark eyes as she turned her gaze back towards her niece, smiling widely. "But he didn't _look_ so well before I was done with him. Your father is looking _much_ better now," Bellatrix giggled. The smile vanished from her face instantly as she continued speaking, her dark eyes now glistening with unshed moisture. "I enjoy… _breaking_ things, little niece? Like I broke your father, and now he's a _new_ man. A new _person_ , niece, yes?"

Lestrange's ironclad grip on Tonks's hand tightened even more as she spat her words, which were laced to the brim with a horrible bitterness Tonks was sure she'd never heard before.

She could feel her breaths catching in her throat as her heart rate increased and her blood pressure surely spiked but did her absolute best not to show. Dad would have wanted her to stay _calm_.

"Th—that _hurts_ , Aunt Bellatrix," Tonks said in a warbling voice that she hoped sounded calm enough, trying to break free out of her aunt's grasp. She had no idea where the bloody hell her aunt had got such a tempered strength from, but what she did know, was that her body was afraid and reacting violently to Bellatrix.

"Oh, I know, you filthy little blood traitor." Bella smiled reassuringly at Tonks, squeezing onto her slender fingers tighter.

Tonks winced, not knowing what her aunt's plan was, what she hoped to accomplish by cornering her, but she started wondering—if she screamed, would a Hogwarts teacher come?

Would Lupin come for her? Black? That creepy old bastard with the mechanical swivel blue eye? Was that one even here? But her aunt gave Tonks no time to ponder this as she spoke.

"It's so much _better_ , little niece, when it hurts. Pain is _good_."

Tonks let out a low, painful whimper. She didn't understand. Sirius and Remus had made a point last night to fill her in on the mindsets of some pureblood wizarding families, how they thought they were better than anyone else, and then, it hit Tonks.

She was an ultimate threat to Bellatrix. Or rather, her lineage was.

She was a…a _Squib_! Tonks had to wrack her brain to try to remember what it was that she was called, and finally remembered. She'd not been born with any magic powers at all. Bellatrix and the rest of her family, at least, the family on her mum's side, the Lestranges, probably hated that about Tonks. _And Dad_ , her mind chirped up unhelpfully.

Her insides clenched at the utter implications of what it was that she had just managed to figure out. Though the only pain Tonks currently felt was coming from the vice grip on her fingers from her aunt, Tonks already sensed it deep within the recesses of her heart and mind at the sheer thought of what Bellatrix Lestrange would do to her now.

No, no, no, _no_! It _couldn't_ end this way! It bloody couldn't! But what in the seven hells could she do to stop it from happening?

"Let _go_ of me, you—you _bitch_ ," Tonks hissed at her aunt.

Bellatrix merely raised her eyebrows in mock amusement at the insult, still smiling that vicious, unnaturally-wide smile, but slowly slackened her grip just enough for Tonks to free herself from her.

Her aunt merely cackled at her while the knife she held in her hands brushed against the column of her throat as she leaned forward. It was a light, swooping, threatening touch, not pressed hard against her skin to cause blood to appear, but it left Dora Tonks with a horrible feeling of doubt. She was sure to die here.

Tonks shuddered but did not relent or attempt to bolt from her chair, though her mind was screaming at her to try to run for it. She wasn't going to surrender easily to whatever it was her aunt wanted of her, and Tonks knew she certainly wasn't going to give her mum's deranged sister the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"Be a good girl, niece, don't struggle and this will only hurt…well, pretty much _always_ ," Lestrange cackled as she shifted the hilt of her knife to her other hand and teased at her skin, swaying it to the side, pressing the tip of the blade into her skin.

Tonks shut her eyes tightly closed, almost praying to God if He was even _listening_ , wanting to dissociate and take her mind somewhere far away from here, though she was momentarily surprised at how the knife did not seem to prick the skin of her throat and cause it to bleed with how hard she was pressing against.

She trembled, feeling her body quiver as her aunt's hand went higher, higher, though the pressure of her aunt's hand-wound tightly around her throat and the tip of the blade instantly vanished the moment the door burst open and every tight, clenching grip on her body subsided, leaving her feeling now utterly alone and limp.

Tonks didn't know how it happened, but she fell out of the chair she had been sitting in, continuing to tremble as she scooted backward and pressed her back against the cold stone wall of the classroom, huddled into a corner as far away as she could get, still keeping her eyes closed.

Something else clattered on the floor next to her, and Tonks almost blindly felt her body grope for the object, the cold surface of her aunt's knife slightly soothing her panicked senses as she swore she heard Lupin's voice speak and a loud _crack_!

Curious as to the noise, Tonks peeked open one eyelid, feeling like she was in some horrible hypnotic spell or trance, her heartbeat, now little more than a throbbing mass of corded muscle in her veins, thumping so damned audibly loud and fast she feared it might explode in her chest.

Could you actually _die_ of _fear_ , then? Her breaths caught in her throat and became shallow, her eardrums now filled with the roaring, rushing sound of her blood. Moving purely on instinct at this point, her left hand reached for Bellatrix Lestrange's fallen dagger and hid the blade up her jacket sleeve, ignoring the shallow, fresh-cut it made somewhere on her forearm on the way up as she stole the weapon.

Only then did Tonks open her other eye and shift her head slightly to the right to see just what the bloody hell was going on. Lupin stood in the now-open threshold of the doorway, his wand pointed steadily at her aunt's slender chest, glaring at the older witch in a way that Tonks was sure could kill just by sheer force of his gaze.

Her breaths stifled as his irises shifted to gold.

_There they did it again_! She thought wildly, chewing on the inside wall of her mouth, thinking that there was something of the son of her father's family friend that was not at all, well… _human_.

Remus Lupin did not seem agitated like a normal man would be given the situation, though Tonks couldn't be certain, there was…something different about the man.

A silent fury, maybe, or rather, disappointment that Tonks had wandered off?

Without missing a beat, he waved his wand, a muscle in his jaw twitching, though Tonks felt her mouth drop open in shock and awe, coupled with horror, as her aunt's form began to shimmer and distort into something truly unusual: the shape of the full moon.

"Wh— _what_?" she squeaked breathlessly, though she wasn't sure Lupin heard her breathless plea for an explanation as he pointed his wand again, his voice raised slightly, " _Riddikulus_!"

The full moon and clouds surrounding the swirling white orb quickly transformed into what Tonks surmised was supposed to be a crystal ball of sorts, where gravity immediately took effect and the ball dropped to the hardwood floor and shattered into an untold fragmented number of pieces.

Letting out a low growl of frustration from deep within his chest, Lupin gave one of the shards a truly scathing look before kicking aside a fragment with the edge of his shoe, sending it flying across the room where it hit the opposing wall and promptly shattered into even more pieces.

He waved his wand and the door shut behind him, making her jump and look towards the now-closed door with a look of fear. Her nightmare was over. Somehow, she'd managed to remain in one piece and yet, Tonks didn't _feel_ like she had been rescued.

Her entire body locked up and seized with terror, her heartbeat still pounding relentlessly within its cage of bone and cartilage. She could feel Lupin approaching even closer, though guarded, and cautious, as though hesitant of what her initial reaction would be.

Out of the corner of her peripherals, she saw Remus extend his hand to help her stand upright and get off of the floor. Tonks stared at Lupin's outstretched, calloused hand for a bit.

She wasn't even sure whether her legs would let her walk after what had just happened which—what the hell _had_ just happened, even?

Tonks was unwilling to touch another human being at the moment, no matter if it was Lupin. Lupin waited in silence for another moment, and then pocketed his wand and changed his approach, lifting her on his own, have to kneel slightly to do it.

He lifted her by putting his hands underneath her arms. Tonks couldn't stop the violent shudder that went up and down her spine at Remus's surprisingly gentle touch; almost opposing it.

If he was offended by it, the man hid it well enough as he spoke to her in his calm, reserved tone that was surprisingly soothing.

"You're safe now, Tonks," Lupin murmured under his breath as he led her back towards the nearby chair she'd just fallen out of, kicking it back upright with his leg and bidding her sit.

Tonks didn't want Lupin to touch her right now. She didn't want anything except for the goddamned world to just let her be.

Though Lupin, it would seem, had no intentions of leaving her side. "Are you hurt?" he asked softly, pulling up the second chair her aunt had been seated in and pulling it close to sit by her.

Tonks gazed at Remus incredulously as though the man had just sprouted antlers on the top of his head. What a dumb fucking question.

No, she wasn't bloody fucking _hurt_ , but neither was she all right! What…what the hell was that? Where was she?

"Where did she _go_? My—my aunt?" Tonks managed to gasp out in a hoarse croak, almost snapping at her new guard before some small semblance of reason came back to her mind.

_Get a goddamn grip_ , she scolded herself bitterly. _Be cool._

"No." Her fingertips grazed against the column of her throat, wincing as she swore she felt the reddened, finger-shaped indentations of where her aunt's nails had dug into her poor throat.

Remus looked at Tonks in silence for a moment while Tonks struggled to mold her features into a mask of relief, maybe even gratitude for whatever it was that he'd done to get rid of Bella, or—or force herself to thank him somehow, but she wasn't able to.

Her body still violently quivered and shook, despite her best efforts not to. Thank god her eyes were dry. She didn't want Lupin to see her cry. His sharp gaze traveled down her arm, stopping at the outline of the blade Tonks had hidden up the sleeve of her jacket.

"You'll get better protection going forward, Tonks. I—I don't know what I was thinking, telling you to go off on your own. You won't be needing that, I promise." Lupin reached out his hand and shot her a pointed, expectant look, telling her in not so many words to hand it over.

With great reluctance, Tonks relinquished her grip on the knife and passed it to Remus, watching as Lupin took the knife and waved his wand, causing the weapon to vanish.

"Your aunt, she—she was only a boggart. A shape-shifter, they take the shape of whatever that particular person fears the most. No one knows what they look like," Lupin quickly explained. "Boggarts can't physically hurt you, but I _am_ sorry she scared you."

Tonks just gazed blankly at Remus for a while, feeling like she was unable to function, though finally was able to swallow back down all the bitter bile rising in her throat as she looked at Remus.

She tried to convey just the right amount of gratitude, horror, and relief. In a way, she knew she ought to be thankful.

If Lupin hadn't barged in when he had…she shuddered. She didn't like to think it.

"Thanks," she muttered, thinking it was all she could manage to say.

She still wasn't quite sure what he had saved her from, but the fact that he acknowledged with a small nod was more than enough of a relief for her. "For—for that, Lupin," she said.

"You're welcome," he said, sounding hesitant. It seemed to take him an eternity to find his voice, and when he did, there was a note of apprehension lingering in his voice that she wasn't entirely sure where it was coming. "You—you haven't asked," he said.

Tonks blinked owlishly at him, certain she had misheard. And then it hit her. Oh. The form of his…boggart, whatever that thing was. She couldn't help but wonder why his was the moon.

"Your business is _yours_ ," she answered simply, shrugging her shoulders, and swallowing down past the lump in her throat. "if you ever want to talk about it, then I'm here to listen, but I'm not going to force it out of you, Lupin," Tonks said with a light laugh that she knew sounded strained and said laugh didn't meet her eyes.

He nodded, still looking a little nonplussed at her words though he said nothing as he rose to his feet, casting one more sweeping glance around the deserted classroom, probably searching for any more signs of that…that _thing_ , Tonks thought angrily.

"If you're hungry, the feast downstairs in the Great Hall is always worth attending. You're looking like you're about to have a blood sugar dip, and a friendly little piece of advice: pretty much anything chocolate always does wonders after a boggart attack."

Tonks shakily stood to her feet, brushing the palms of her hands on the seat of her black jeans, not sure what to say to that.

Lupin hesitated, biting down on his bottom lip, summoning every bit of ounce of his inner Gryffindor strength he could muster. He thought he was going to need it with the question he was about to ask. "You wouldn't want to go to it with me, would you? It might do you some good. Help take your mind off things?"

Tonks was so utterly flabbergasted, the words were out of her mouth before her mind could even process what she said.

"Sure." She glanced sideways out of the corner of her peripherals as Lupin's soft smile slowly melted some of the shock and anger and tension out of her tightly wound body as he offered her his arm and she reluctantly accepted it, still wary of his touch.

Her body involuntarily leaned into his, her head nestling against the crook of his shoulder, too traumatized to manage on her own. Though she couldn't quite explain it, the more she spent around this bloke, as kind a chap as he was, she felt the agitation slowly escaping her body, leaving her with a sense of newfound peace wallowing in her soul she wasn't sure where it came from.

But what she _did_ decide, however, was that she liked the tempered strength and warm feeling that his arm entwined with hers gave off, and though would take her several more days to realize it, what Tonks _didn't_ know, was she was falling for Lupin.


	8. Chapter 8

**8**

**TONKS** was quite sure she'd never seen so much _food_ in her entire life. She blinked, gaping as piles of food, most of them looking like delicacies, materialized seemingly out of thin air in front of her the moment Lupin made her sit down at the end of a long wooden rectangular table, the staff table.

Yet, despite all of the food that lay in front of her, the young woman found herself craving for the familiar, something that reminded her of home, and nervously reached across the table for a plate of chips, all the while, Lupin sat nervously next to her, blinking wide-eyed in a daze. He couldn't quite shake it, that, even though she had promptly said yes to his admittedly impromptu invitation to join him for dinner at the Halloween Feast, that it strangely felt like a date.

Even with all of the other teachers practically swiveling their heads in their general direction to look at him.

_But…it could not be a date_ , Remus told himself sadly.

Ted Tonks had assigned him as her partner, merely for protection, Lupin told himself. And he did not know this young woman, this Squib, despite Remus having met her parents on numerous occasions, and coupled to that the fact that he was best friends with her cousin for over twenty years. Tonks didn't even know what he really, truly was yet.

Desperate as he wracked his brain for something to say, anything he could think of to fill the awkward silence, he was spared the trouble of answering when Tonks spoke up first, though it pained his heart to hear her so solemnly. "This isn't right," she growled through a mouthful of chips, pausing to lick the salt off her fingers in a casual way that caused the wolf within his chest and mind to growl its savage displeasure.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut against the mad beast's wild, untamed urges, with Tonks remaining blissfully oblivious to what she did to him.

_Oh, Merlin, not now_ , he thought despairingly. He screamed at himself inside of his mind the moment he saw Tonks lift a golden chalice of ice water, threw her head back, and chomped on an ice cube, the droplets of condensation from the ice dripping down her chin and down her blouse. _Hell. Seven hells, I—I can't take this anymore_ , he thought to himself, though he swallowed thickly past the growing lump in his throat, surprised he could find his voice.

"What's—what's not right?" Lupin managed to gasp out in a hoarse little croak, thankful to Merlin that Tonks was obliviously aware of his rapidly growing discomfort. Tonks shot him a pointed look and raised eyebrows that made him cringe. He sincerely hoped the young Squib didn't think he was stupid because Remus was far from it.

"My _dad_ ," she growled, as though she thought it was obvious. "He—he should have gotten away by now," Tonks mumbled under her breath, shoveling another chip in her mouth before pushing her plate of food away, suddenly not very hungry.

In fact, she felt quite nauseous, though she settled for rolling the delish-looking red apple she'd swiped from a nearby platter of food in her hands, thinking that for sure Lupin would give her seven shades of holy hell if she didn't at least try to eat something. She reluctantly took a bite, the sweet, slightly tart juices of the apple filling her mouth and settling on her tongue, lingering long after she'd swallowed.

"She—my—my aunt, that _thing_ you saved me from upstairs?" Tonks questioned, glancing at Lupin after a moment.

"A boggart," he corrected quietly, not sure where she was headed with this, though Remus was unable to stop the feeling of worry from worming its way to the pit of his stomach. Lupin was quick to decide he didn't like the growing look of disappointment and concern on Tonks's pale features. "What did it tell you? Did it say something to you? I wouldn't pay it any mind, boggarts are creatures of darkness who feed on fear. It—she, was trying to rile you up, but…just out of curiosity, what did it tell you? You can tell me, there's no need to be ashamed or frightened, Tonks," Remus asked, curious.

His wolfish gaze drifted towards the table, where Tonks was fidgeting with an emerald ring on her left pointing finger. He flinched as he recognized the Black family crest and then realized Andromeda must have given it to her daughter as a family heirloom before she passed on.

Despite the, well, _black_ history, for lack of a better phrase that surrounded the piece of jewelry, it was easily the prettiest ornament Tonks owned, and Lupin was afraid she'd drop it if she weren't more careful.

What was even worse was the man had no idea what to say in the face of her concerns as they discussed her father, who, Remus was loathed to admit it, was probably dead. Bellatrix Lestrange wasn't exactly a witch known for her merciful stature.

Though Tonks was trying her best to hide it, Remus had seen the miserable, forlorn expression on Dora Tonks's face as he had escorted her away from that abandoned classroom and to the Great Hall. Ted's daughter was beginning to lose hope, and there wasn't much that Remus could for her except to continuously reassure Tonks.

"I'm sure your father is alive, Dora. He's quite a skilled wizard, Ted knows what he's doing. I'm sure he just…went into hiding. Or there was a delay or he had to take a long detour in order to meet us. He'll _find_ us, Tonks." Tonks nodded, casting him a slightly wary look, her mouth, however, remained set in a tense frown, her eyebrows knitted together in worry.

"You might be right…fuck, I _hope_ you're right," she grumbled, ignoring the dark look Lupin shot her, as well as McGonagall, for her language. Professor Dumbledore didn't seem to mind much. She turned back towards her plate and picked at her food with her fork. "I don't know…" she murmured. "My aunt-boggart, whatever you want to call that old _bitch_ , she—she told me Dad's dead. What if she's right?"

She turned away, her voice cracking and breaking a little. Lupin watched her, his heart sinking at the sight. He wanted to do something for the girl. Anything, just to see her smile, like she first had when the pair of them had Apparated onto Hogwarts grounds, thanks to Dumbledore for lifting the barrier.

Now, however, Remus, who considered himself a man of many words, found he had nothing to say. It might have been easier to comfort her if he knew the specifics on whether or not Ted Tonks was still alive, though his gut told him no. And though her evasiveness was a little hurtful, Lupin decided he couldn't pressure her into opening up to him to talk. Doing that would only cause a rift.

"Come on," he mumbled, rising to his chair, and pushing it back, Tonks following suit. "I don't think you need to be here right now. Let's—let's go for a walk," he said quietly, thinking quickly, hoping a walk around the lush, green Hogwarts grounds would do the young woman some good. "Some fresh air might do you good. Take your mind off things," he muttered, the heat creeping onto his cheeks as Remus reached for her hand, trying to ignore the interested stares the other Hogwarts Professors, particularly Dumbledore, were giving him, as he wasted no time in dragging Tonks out of the Great Hall and outside, both of them blinking and having to shield their eyes from the brightness of the late afternoon sun as it shone.

Despite the sunny day, Tonks's pale grey-blue eyes were darkened in concern. They walked in silence until they reached the Black Lake. The sun was warm at their backs, the sun dancing off the gentle ripples of the murky water and threw beams of light off Dora's face, only to reveal her eyes were welling with tears.

"Tonks?"

The pair of them stopped walking and Lupin stepped around to face where she stood at the edge of the lake's shore. She turned and let him see her face, glassy red eyes and streaked pale cheeks littered with dried tear tracts from earlier.

He paused, hesitating, wanting to put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, yet feeling as though the gesture would be highly inappropriate. His courage failed him in the end, and Remus let his hand drop to his side.

_Just look at me. Padfoot would laugh at me if he could see me now. I'm no Gryffindor. I'm a damn Slytherin with how cowardly I'm being. Like a wanker_ , he thought bitterly, gnashing his teeth in anger, though he swallowed and forced himself to remain calm, though he honestly felt anything but.

"Don't cry," he said as gently as he could manage. "You can't know for sure if Ted is…gone," he finished lamely, cringing as Tonks flinched, though forced himself to press forward. "Whatever happens, you're going to be okay. You've got me."

_Oh, Merlin_. He froze. He hadn't meant to voice that out loud! _Great_ , he thought bitterly, feeling a muscle in his jaw gives a spasmodic twitch. Now he'd really messed this arrangement of Ted and Dumbledore's up.

Hearing that from someone assigned as her guard not even a fully-fledged day into his newfound role as protector would surely be enough to scare any sane woman away from him.

_Now she'll pull away and…and…_ But he couldn't bring himself to bring his thought to completion, not wanting to, really.

Of course, Remus knew he couldn't know for sure either if her father was still alive or not at the hands of Bellatrix, but he was certain he was not about to let this woman live without a roof over her head or food on her plate, considering the fact that if Ted Tonks was gone, then the young woman was well and truly all on her own.

Blinking away her tears as she fought down the salty liquid, Tonks managed an awkward little half-smile without revealing her teeth.

"You're probably right, Remus," she whispered hoarsely. She wiped at her cheeks with the edge of her jacket sleeve and exhaled a slightly shuddering breath. "I—I shouldn't worry about it much. Dad will kick my aunt's ass and then meet us here as you said." Before Lupin could even nod his head in agreement, she linked her arm with his and said quietly, shyly, "Let's keep walking. I want to see more of these grounds. Tell me about this place, then."

"Ah…s—sure." He was surprised he could even find his words, considering how his tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth.

Their words spent, at least when it came to discussing her dad's unknown fate, for now, the two set off towards the Quidditch Pitch, their connected reflections dancing off the surface of the Black Lake as they walked, with Lupin launching into an abbreviated version of how the brutal but popular sport of Quidditch was played.

Tonks squeezed onto his arm, almost unconsciously so, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for Remus to ignore the swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach.

It was the same feeling he got post-full-moon transformations. Though try as he might force the feeling away, it only intensified when Dora Tonks shot him a furtive little wink as if to silently convey the message in not-so-many words that she was fine.

Lupin thought about pulling away from her grasp, but still, he couldn't manage to bring himself to do it. Despite everything, he didn't want to let go of the young pink-haired Squib around his arm.

They eventually made their way to the Quidditch pitch, where it looked like Slytherin was finishing up a practice session.

Tonks held steadfast and firm to Remus the entire walk, bystanders and passerby shooting them quizzical little glances of curiosity and intrigue.

It made Lupin's face sting with heat with just a twinge of shyness and dare he admit this next part? A note of _pride_.

_She's just being nice_ , Lupin reminded himself. _That's all it is_.

"Lupin? Hey? Are you all right, Remus?" Tonks's voice cut through his swirling dark vortex of doubts littered in his mind. Tonks was watching his expression with furrowed brows and a frown.

The young wizard stumbled over his words for a solid moment or two before managing to spit out, "Yes, fine. Why?"

"You look…upset," was all Tonks said.

He startled at her words, surprised. Remus wasn't sure if this young Squib had an uncanny ability to read his facial expressions or if he was simply that godawful terrible at hiding his true emotions from the woman.

He paused, feeling so unsure of what to say next. How the hell would he answer her now? Would he tell Tonks that he was growing increasingly bothered by his growing attraction to her because in the end, he knew it would be for nothing?

Insist that he didn't mind that Tonks wouldn't feel the same way about him and instead, have the Squib daughter of Ted and Andromeda pity him?

For the sake of his promise to Ted, Lupin shoved away from his doubts to the back of his mind and insisted. "I'm fine, Dora. Really. I solemnly swear it. I'm just a little lost in my own thoughts is all."

He gave her delicate, slender hand currently coiled around his bicep what he hoped was a reassuring, affectionate little pat. Tonks's expression softened and melted instantly at the touch, and though it could have been Lupin's imagination, but he could have sworn he saw a hint of color light up her entire face. As they looked at each other in silence though, in front of the Quidditch Pitch, something unreadable flashed in Tonks's grey eyes.

Remus couldn't quite identify the emotion, he thought, not even if somebody were holding him at wandpoint and threatening his life, but what he was able to tell was how she looked rather troubled.

"I…" she murmured, her brow furrowing. "Can I ask you something…?" she questioned.

Before Remus could nod his head and follow up with asking Ted Tonks's daughter what was wrong, a staged whisper floated from the side of the field and nipped at them.

"….so gross and disgusting. Do you think the girl's blind?"

"Maybe she's like _him_. Would she really be in such a bad way that she would take up with… _that_? Look at the state of the old _dog_!"

Tonks's head whiplashed so sharply upward at the comment and turned in the direction of the insulting comment that Lupin had to stagger backward from her in order to have his head connect with hers on accident.

Lupin glanced over his shoulder to see Lucius Malfoy's only son, Draco, yet another of Dora's cousins, though she doubted she knew it for herself, and Crabbe and Goyle, watching.

The boys' eyes were trained on them, their noses wrinkled in disapproval, and not a moment too soon, Tonks's arm released itself from around his as her face drained of what little color was left in it.

"Tonks, n—no, it's okay, don't _do_ this, it's really not necessary, please don't," he quickly started to say, not wanting to cause a scene, but it was too late for that as Dora Tonks disengaged herself and stalked her way towards Draco.

"Who the _fuck_ do you think you _are_ , you miserable little shit? You look like you just rolled in cow dung with your nose scrunched up like that," she growled, scrunching her nose in disgust as she took in the sight of the thirteen-year-old boy's white-blond hair and almost pallid skin. "If you have something to say, why don't you say it to my _face_ , arsehole?"

Malfoy blinked in surprise and astonishment, though quickly recovered. "I have no idea what you mean," he snapped.

"Dora…" Remus warned, trying again to reach for her elbow, but Tonks planted her black combat boots firmly in the ground and didn't budge an inch. She heard Lupin sigh, but she ignored Remus.

"You're ignorant, you little greasy-haired slimeball," Tonks snapped, her lips curling backward, for a moment, Remus was taken aback.

Her sudden hostile appearance gave her the appearance of a snarling she-wolf that caused Draco Malfoy's cocky attitude to falter, as he swore he could see the shadow of a she-wolf within her flit across the woman's angered, tautly pulled expression of anger.

Malfoy opened his mouth to speak, but Tonks didn't give him a chance. "Not another sound, you little _shit_ , not unless you apologize to Mr. Lupin here for what you just said," she whisper-hissed through gritted teeth, seizing onto a fistful of Draco's emerald green Quidditch robes and shaking him slightly, blissfully unaware of the consequences that were sure to come of this once Lucius learned the truth of how a young Squib woman got one over on his only son.

Draco's nostrils flared, giving the teenager an appearance of a boy about to charge as he wriggled his way out of his cousin's hold.

"Why don't I show you where you can put your little opinions, you trash mouth? Only a _bitch_ would take up with a _werewolf_ ," he snarled, not noticing how Lupin's face drained.

Remus felt his entire body go rigid and numb, his breaths catching in his throat.

This—this was _not_ how this was supposed to go.

He was supposed to protect her, as his partner, invite her to dinner maybe, once she got more comfortable around him, and then, months and months, and maybe even years down the line if she would have him, Lupin would slowly introduce to Tonks to the fact that he was a werewolf, but now this bastard had ruined that plan.

Draco Malfoy would never get to finish his sentence, however, as Malfoy bounded forward on the heels of his Quidditch boots, intending to grab Tonks by the collar of her favorite brown jacket and probably start a fight, a fistfight the Muggle way, though before he could, he found himself thrown up against one of the stands.

A furious Remus Lupin held Tonks's brat of a cousin in place, his pale, scarred features twisted into a truly wolfish snarl.

"Keep your hands off of her!" he shouted. "And don't ever call her that or come near Tonks again, do you understand me?!"

Draco sputtered out something incomprehensible, though Remus swore he caught mentions of, "…my father will hear about this!" as the boy tried unsuccessfully to pry Lupin's hands off the front of his emerald-green robes. Remus did not relinquish his ironclad grip, summoning a little of his wolfish strength, until her young, spoiled cousin relented with, "Fine, fine, I take it _back_ , guy! Get your hands _off_ of me, you—you filthy half-blooded _animal_!"

Remus released him, letting the teenager regain his own footing. He turned back towards Tonks, ignoring the pale, quivering forms of Crabbe and Goyle standing just behind Draco, at a loss.

Tonks didn't seem hurt, thank Merlin, though she was wearing the expression of someone who'd just been slapped. Remus was sad to say that it was a look he was all too familiar with, sadly.

"Come on," he muttered, pink creeping onto his cheeks at the shameful display of anger he had just shown in front of her. "Let me take you back home," he growled, though Tonks didn't move.

Instead, she merely strode up towards where Malfoy cowered in front of his friends, a blank, unreadable expression on her pretty face, and before Lupin could stop her, she drew her hand back so hard and pelted the blond-haired whelp of a Slytherin so hard that his cheek immediately turned red as he staggered backward, a welt under forming underneath his watering right eye where her emerald Black ring she wore on her finger had caught on the boy's cheek.

"Get the fuck out of here, kid, and don't do anything _else_ to piss me off, or the _next_ time, I'll go for the other cheek, you _got_ that?" she growled, before shoving her hands in the pockets of her jackets and walking off, rolling her eyes to herself as her cousin shouted something unintelligible, to which she flipped the bird. "Sack of shit," she laughed, ignoring Lupin's growing discomfort at her language. "Why don't you run on home to Mummy, little boy?"

Tonks snorted and turned away, glancing at Lupin out of the corner of her eyes. "What?" she asked in a way that feigned innocence. "You don't approve? Don't you want me to protect you, Remus?" she asked, a mischievous little grin sneaking onto her face. "We're _partners_ , aren't we? I know I may not have... _magic_ ," she admitted, her face suddenly looking a little crestfallen, though she quickly gave her head a curt shake, wanting to get to the point, "but that doesn't mean I can't have your back in _other_ ways, Lupin…"

Lupin huffed indignantly, swallowing down hard past the growing lump in his throat while he waited impatiently for his heart to climb back up into his chest.

"Don't worry about me, Dora. I—I can take care of myself," he growled in annoyance, though it wasn't enough to stop the tiny note of smugness creeping into his voice, though it was quickly replaced with a sick fear as he quickly realized.

She _knew_. Tonks bloody knew the truth, Malfoy had ruined it, Merlin damn that boy.

"You—you shouldn't trust people so easily, Tonks. Especially not me. What if I was a…a bad person?" He was surprised when Tonks snorted and held out her hand for him to take. "Did you not _hear_ him?" Lupin demanded, almost sounding angry with Tonks. "I'm a…"

_Here it goes. The truth_.

"I'm a werewolf. I'm dangerous, Tonks, extremely. It doesn't bother you?"

Lupin merely stared at Tonks's outstretched palm as though he'd never seen a woman's beautiful hand in his entire life. When she still said nothing, it prompted the distraught, worrying wizard to ask another follow-up question.

"You…you aren't _afraid_ to let a _wolf-like_ me touch you?" he asked, nervously lifting his chin to meet her gaze.

Tonks's hardened gaze was unabashed and unwavering.

"No," was all she answered, offering a light little shrug of her shoulders. There was still a twinge of fear in her eyes as she met his irises, which had flashed golden in color the angrier he became. She flinched, feeling uncertain and wary, but did not dare back down. " _Should_ I be?" she questioned. "I…don't know _how_ I'm supposed to react," she confessed, shooting him a nervous smile that told Remus she was trying her best to understand, she was, but coming up short.

When Lupin didn't answer, she pressed forward.

"Isn't it rude that werewolves like you haven't been taught to accept a lady's hand when it's offered?" Tonks fired back, almost mockingly, wriggling her eyebrows at him, and biting on her lip flirtatiously.

Lupin smiled nervously and dared to take her hand, though he jolted, feeling that the very second her skin touched his as their fingers intertwined and fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, Lupin felt it. A tiny golden thread connecting the two for life. His heart rate and pulse quickened. He wondered if Tonks had felt it too. The relaxed yet concerned look on her face told him that she hadn't, but Remus was just pleased to discover it for himself.

"That's better," Tonks joked. "I don't bite." A beat. A pause. "Unless that's like, a _werewolf_ thing or something, and you want me to do it, then I guess I could be willing to make an exception," she said softly, casting him a wary glance out of the corner of her eye.

Lupin hesitated, sliding out of her grasp, instantly missing the warmth and the heat her hand gave off, though the tiny invisible golden string that connected still remained, though she didn't see it.

Oh, but _he_ did. His wolfish heightened sight saw _everything_.

"I—it is," he stammered, a mad blush creeping to his cheeks as he pointedly looked away, not sure what that outburst came from.

What in the bloody hell was _wrong_ with him?! He was too dangerous for her, too poor, and too old. She was twenty-six, he thirty-three. Entirely too old. Remus watched his feet carry him away from the Quidditch Pitch, his heart sinking further with each heavy step. Tonks, Merlin bless her, sensed that he was bothered and fell silent.

Had he frightened her? The last time he'd seen her like this was earlier in the abandoned classroom with the boggart and then before, laying eyes on her deranged Aunt Bellatrix for the first time.

Despite having acted in Tonks's best interests to protect her in order to fulfill his promise to Ted Tonks, the young wizard and werewolf could not manage to shake the fear that Tonks saw in him now as every bit of the monster, the savage wolf he knew himself as.

As he walked, not really sure where he was heading, Tonks's quick footsteps followed.

But she didn't take his arm again for the rest of the way heading back up to Hogwarts to rendezvous with Sirius.


	9. Chapter 9

**9**

**REMUS** had no bloody idea what the hell to do. Tonks hadn't taken his arm for the rest of the walk, and he wasn't even sure if Sirius could help him as the pair sat on the front steps of the castle steps, trying to ignore the flustered looks from the students passing through, looking more than a little stunned to see a wanted, dangerous convict sitting casually in a relaxed manner on the front steps, his shoulders slumped, and arms folded across his slender, tattooed chest as though he belonged here at Hogwarts.

All it took, however, for the quizzical looks to disappear was one withering look from Sirius, for the students to see his waxy, slightly emaciated skin from his years in Azkaban Prison, the edges of his thin lips curling upward to reveal slightly yellowed teeth, the hollow-sunken in pits of the man's heavily lidded pale grey irises that bore such a striking resemblance to Dora's, that Lupin was admittedly having a hard time looking Sirius in the eye.

Lupin's brows knitted together in a frown, feeling more like a little lost boy than a man whose lycanthropic condition had accidentally just been revealed to him by a snot-nosed punk teenager whose father they sorely hated.

Tonks had surely all but declared her hatred from him, judging by the way she had kept her distance from him on the walk back up towards the castle, and was now inside the Hospital Wing with Madame Pomfrey, with Lupin having remained insistent that the young Squib be given something for shock, a Calming Draught, perhaps.

There was nothing Remus could do to change it, any of it. He possessed no Time-Turner, he could not turn back time the last half-hour, even if he wanted to, and he did not have any idea of how to go forward from this point onward.

Sirius sighed, his once-tranquil face now welcoming a slight struggle, his greyish-tinged face glowering in a pensive frown as he absentmindedly stroked the stubble along the strong jawline of his three-day-old beard now.

"Maybe you're right, Moony," he agreed. "Something tells me that few people in my baby cousin's life have been granted the chance to restore their good opinion of her," he conjectured, causing Lupin's forlorn expression to become even more miserable as his face fell as he carded his fingers through his thick tuft of light brown hair, swearing he caught sight of another grey hair that could not have been there this morning, though Lupin was pulled from his musings of how horrible their walk had gone when his friend sitting beside him made an odd little snorting noise at the back of his throat.

Lupin raised his eyebrows and looked over at Padfoot. It took him a moment to realize Sirius was laughing.

"She decked the boy a solid hit," he chortled. "Kid's going to have a hell of a shiner of a black eye, at _least_ a week or two before the mark fades. I wish I could have seen it," Sirius sighed remorsefully, glancing at Lupin out of the corner of his eye, almost rolling his eyes.

Sirius realized a fraction of a second too late that he had said the wrong thing in attempting to cheer Remus up the moment his head whiplashed so sharply upward and turned to the right to look at Sirius that Black had to move his head back in order to avoid connecting harshly with his.

"You think this is _funny_? You and I _both_ know that Malfoy's son isn't the type to just let what Dora did go, Padfoot. He's going to surely tell Lucius, and Merlin helps us all if he gets the Board of Governors involved. There's sure to be an inquiry, Tonks might even be brought in for questioning. What if her life is ruined, because of _me_?" he asked, almost with painstaking slowness, a low, rumbling, wolfish growl threatening to erupt from the confines of his chest. Lupin ducked his head in shame.

Sirius repressed a shudder of disgust as his best mate's irises flitted from their usual light hazel hue to solid gold, as the wolf within him tended to bring out in his mate whenever angry, which Remus had every right to be now.

That little shit of a Malfoy boy had perhaps put a huge chink in the chain of his new partnership with his cousin, and if they weren't on Hogwarts Grounds, and were Malfoy not under the sworn protection of the staff and the Headmaster, Sirius would deal with the accursed wretch himself, teach Lucius and Narcissa's son a lesson he wouldn't soon forget.

"I'm sorry, mate, I didn't mean it." Unable to bear seeing his best mate in such overwhelming anguish, Sirius wanted to ease Moony's mind. He didn't think he'd seen Remus this flustered over a woman before in the man's life, so this sensation was new.

He hoped that Tonks's initial discomfort hid deeper, stronger, more pleasant feelings for his best mate. At least, once her initial shock wore off that Lupin had a 'furry little problem' two to three nights a month during each full moon. Sirius paused, thinking over his choice of words.

"I think…she _likes_ you. I saw the way she looked at you during the Halloween Feast, Moony." Sirius stopped himself for decorum's sake while he thought of what to say.

He almost smiled, though his lips twitched backward into their usual cold, hard gawk he'd become accustomed to wearing while locked up in Azkaban Prison.

Lupin almost vehemently shook his head no by way of response. "So, _help_ me, Sirius, if you mention the way she looked at me one more time, I'll throw you off the ledge of the Astronomy Tower," he promised in a low little growl.

Sirius nearly allowed himself a good-natured chuckle. He'd never admit it, but he rather enjoyed the wolfish aspect of Moony's personality. Especially to see the man so hot and bothered over a Squib was a welcome sight.

He clapped Remus on the back, rolling his eyes to himself as the poor man nearly jumped out of his skin at the light-hearted gesture.

"Don't worry so damned bloody much, Moony. You'll give yourself an aneurysm, but you mark my words, my friend. You like that girl inside, don't be an arse and try to deny it. I think my cousin is starting too as well. It might be buried underneath all her layers of hurt and shrouded with anger at what probably happened to Ted," he growled, the briefest flickers of rage darting across the shadow of his handsome face that sent a chill down Lupin's spine, though just as quick as it had come, it was gone. "But…if what you told me about what you felt when you took her hand, that thread, that werewolf thing, is it true?"

Lupin nodded, and only until the man nodded did Sirius continue speaking.

"Then a connection like what you and my cousin seem to be developing isn't going to just disappear. She's your _mate_ , Moony, like it or not. That _string_ thing that happened to you, it's the only proof you need, so don't try to bloody deny it. I don't want to hear it."

"I believe Mr. Black is quite correct." A soft, breathy, almost mystical voice surprised them from behind them.

Lupin and Sirius shifted at the waist from their perch on the topmost step, though neither man moved to stand, both of them inwardly suppressing groans as Hogwarts' Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney, a rumored Seer with a penchant for alcoholism, shuffled forward. Sibyl Trelawney's face washed over Sirius's with as little astonishment, not surprised to see an escaped convict of Azkaban Prison sitting on the topmost step.

"Professor," Lupin stammered slightly. Never would he have imagined he would one day be forced to interact with a woman who claimed to be able to see into the future.

And considering that few adults here at Hogwarts treated her with an inkling of respect, given most thought her subject a waste of time and energy, he would not have imagined that Trelawney would treat them kindly, considering he had practically fled from her a while ago at the Halloween Feast when she'd offered to predict his death.

That had been the _second_ reason he'd taken Tonks for a walk out on the Grounds, to get as far away from _her_. Professor Trelawney tottered forward, clutching the remnants of a half-empty sherry bottle, and threw herself down onto the step, sandwiched in between Sirius and Remus, allowing herself to sigh loudly in a rather dramatic fashion, which earned raised eyebrows from both wizards.

Trelawney waited until the last straggling student had gone inside since curfew was fast approaching to continue speaking. "Mr. Black," she greeted cheerfully. "I am quite pleased to see that are mostly at full health. It has been quite the time for you, I am sure," she said calmly.

Sirius jumped at being addressed with even an inkling of respect and stared incredulously in disbelief at Trelawney, as though he'd never seen anything quite like her before.

"One for which I fear there's no damn point," Sirius answered disgruntledly under his breath, looking out at the grounds and away from the professor and Remus for a minute to compose his temper as a muscle in his jaw twitched. "I'm just grateful Dumbledore is letting me look and is keeping the Ministry and the Dementors off my trail for now," he added, a shudder wafting down his back.

Trelawney sighed, a discouraged shake of her head, hinting at her judgment of the mess both men had made of the situation surrounding Peter Pettigrew's involvement in the Potters' murders, as well as what happened with Draco.

"Yes, that is most fortunate. You _will_ find him, just not in the way you expect," she answered airily, though before Sirius could part open his lips to ask her what the hell the old bat meant by that, the teacher turned her wide, almost bug-eyed stare towards Remus, who stiffened and tried to avert his gaze from her piercing, almost ethereal stare. "Miss Tonks's reaction towards the learning of your…condition is most unfortunate," Professor Trelawney acknowledged as if the Seer had already known every little detail of what had transpired between himself, Tonks, and Malfoy out on the Quidditch Pitch. Lupin bristled, but said nothing, waiting for the woman to elaborate her point. "However, I don't know what other reception you could have expected, giving the circumstances of Mr. Malfoy's…accidental slip of your condition, Mr. Lupin."

Her tone reminded Sirius and Remus of the reprimands they used to receive from Remus's father whenever Sirius and James and Peter visited the Lupin's cottage in Wales over the summer when they'd misbehaved as children.

"I am sure I do not need to describe how _troubling_ your actions in this matter have been, Lupin," she announced, referring, of course, to the way Lupin had allowed the wolf within to take control and would have likely let it loose upon Lucius Malfoy's son had he not managed to calm himself down before it was too late.

Remus hung his head and acquiesced. He was more than willing to listen to whatever harsh words the so-called Seer had for him. If only some feat could make him worthy of Tonks.

If only some act of contrition could prove that he'd not meant to scare her or frighten her away back there. He was ashamed of himself, for what he was, for everything that he had done.

At his side, Sirius crossed his arms and stared accusingly at his best friend. "Troubling is one way to put it," he scoffed, stating indignantly, nodding his head in agreement with the Divination teacher's words.

" _Both_ your actions, Mr. Black," Professor Trelawney reiterated, fixing the escaped prisoner of Azkaban with a rather pointed stare that had she possessed the ability, would have made a fully-bloomed rose wither and wilt. "I had _hoped_ that you would have delivered the news of your innocence to your own blood cousin with a bit more tact. You scared her that night in her family's home," she chastised. "I'm sure you can understand how painful this is for both of them, and how much worse your misinterpretation of Ted Tonks's wishes to protect his daughter from harm has made this situation, young sirs."

Trelawney regarded the pair of wizards in disappointment. Remus wanted nothing more than to crawl away, or for the ground beneath their feet to open up and swallow him whole. A sentiment made even more distressing by Sirius's suddenly superior scrutiny of him.

Sirius cleared his throat, enjoying watching Lupin squirm in hot shame and embarrassment for how he'd acted towards Draco Malfoy earlier, trying to protect _her_.

"Your little display of wolfish aggression _frightened_ Miss Tonks," Professor Trelawney said softly, redirecting her censure back towards Lupin, who continued to fidget and nervously twisting his hands together, at a loss for words. "I understand that you were acting on an instinctual urge to protect her. It's normal of your kind, dearie, but you frightened that poor Squib to death, whether she admits it or not," she admonished. "Imagine seeing her partner's eyes turn _gold_ and the shadow of the wolf across your face, coupled with the revelation from a boy that she does not know that you are a _werewolf_. You should have minded your temper, sir, and perhaps she would not be in the Hospital Wing right now asleep under Pomfrey's orders."

Lupin felt a coil in his gut twist and lurch at the thought of Dora Tonks's fear of him, of the monster that he knew himself to be. He would never have meant to subject her to such a shocking truth. He had been selfish, and she had paid the price.

"I know you're right, Professor," Lupin apologized, not sure why he was apologizing to Trelawney when s _he_ was the one who he ought to be apologizing towards was now hopefully resting and sound asleep in the Hospital Wing. "I have no defense for what I have done," he lamented sadly. "It was aggression and desperation that clouded my judgment and caused me to react in such a horrible way towards Lucius Malfoy's son," he admitted, his light hazel eyes never leaving the ground, not wanting to look at her.

Professor Trelawney looked at Lupin for a moment before speaking and offering a slight incline of her head. "You've my sympathies, my dear," Sibyl told him sincerely. "But I would caution you and advise you going forward to be more ah, shall we say, judicious in your approach to that poor girl. The girl's life has been uprooted in such a short time span. At least for the time being, sir."

"Of course, Professor," Remus agreed sullenly and sourly, unable to disguise the note of bitterness and self-hatred from seeping its way unbidden to the surface of his normally kind and quiet, reserved tone. "But Tonks has already made it perfectly clear that she doesn't want me anywhere near her. She—she didn't take my arm for the whole rest of the way up here. How could she possibly be expected to entrust a werewolf-like me to protect her? She is _disgusted_ by what I am, I can _sense_ it," he snapped airily.

Professor Trelawney paused, chewing the wall of her mouth before lifting the bottle of sherry to her lips, taking a hearty swig, quick to consider Remus Lupin's worry, and mitigate the wizard and werewolf's doubts of the Squib's thoughts of him.

"The chasm between the two of you now at this premature revelation of your condition is certainly not what you had hoped for, I know," the Divination Professor agreed with a light little shrug of her shoulders. "However, there are always reasons for everything. Allow the girl some space, time to process everything thus far that's happened to her. Otherwise, I fear she might crack."

She did her best to reassure the crestfallen wizard sitting so close sandwiched in between herself and Black that their shoulders practically touched. He flinched away at smelling the sherry spirits on her breath, but Sibyl didn't notice.

The Divination Professor seemed to understand the dark look of remorse and anger which settled upon Remus's face at the thought of Tonks cracking and suffering a mental breakdown at the pressure and overwhelming sensations of being exposed to so much, and so soon, though a part of Lupin feared she didn't have a choice. Tonks was going to have learn the truth eventually.

Sibyl coughed once to clear her throat in an attempt to continue steering the conversation forward. "Miss Tonks inside is resting," she murmured, suddenly sounding sleepy and faraway, though a curt shake of her head snapped her out of it. "She is currently not ready to discuss at length what has happened but give her an hour or two and she will come around. The girl is growing to care for you, Mr. Lupin," Trelawney openly declared, as if the Seer had somehow walked through her innermost thoughts.

Lupin's brow furrowed in contemplative thought, unable to risk glancing at the Divination Teacher, now swaying where she stood on the spot and heard the witch let out a tiny little hiccup after taking another shot of sherry.

"You mean she won't always _despise_ me?" he asked painfully, cringing at the cold undertone in his quiet voice.

Trelawney very nearly choked on her swig of sherry as she smiled and shook her head.

Quite the contrary, dear boy, she is becoming fond of you," she chuckled, telling Remus this with the utmost certainty. "But you must give Miss Tonks time," she instructed. "Edward and Andromeda Tonks's daughter, Squib though she is, is a proud woman. She does not easily forgive wrongs, and I believe she wishes that you would have been _honest_ with her right from the start, Mr. Lupin."

Remus raised his eyes, Sirius agreeing with the Seer's words with a heavy, exasperated sounding little sigh.

"Hate is not the opposite of love and affection, Mr. Lupin," Sibyl spoke stoically, which was strange considering how increasingly inebriated she was becoming as her drink was swiftly disappearing with each hearty swig. "Indifference is the antithesis of affection, and from her reaction towards young Mr. Malfoy earlier is any indication, I would say that Miss Dora Tonks is anything but indifferent towards you, Mr. Lupin," Trelawney said.

Lupin nodded his head slowly upon hearing the Seer's words, breathing out a long and mournful sigh. "I hope you're right, Professor," he said humbly, almost afraid to hope and dare to go back inside and see Dora in the Hospital Wing when she woke up in another hour or two.

"Be patient," Trelawney advised. "Show you that she has nothing to fear from you. That she can trust you, sir."

"It won't be easy," Remus lamented to the Seer, shuddering a little upon thinking how in times past, most people when they discovered he was a werewolf, could barely stomach to be in the same room as him, much less look him in the eye or carry on a polite conversation.

"No, perhaps not," Trelawney agreed, "but then again, matters of such a consequence as this is never easy. You owe it to that young woman inside, _and_ her father."

Lupin lowered his chin as the Seer heaved a heavy groan as she hauled herself to her feet, Sirius and Remus standing as well, noticing how heavily she swayed on her feet, though somehow, the Divination teacher managed to regain her balance, turning on her heels to head back inside.

"That I do, Professor." He inhaled deeply as if preparing himself for the monumental task ahead of him. "I will show Dora that her hope and faith in my abilities to protect her is not misplaced. I will give her the time she needs, and I _don't_ plan on leaving her side again."

He could almost— _almost_ —look forward to the future with this sole thought bolstering his inner Gryffindor courage. Perhaps, there was a part of Trelawney's abilities as a natural-born Seer that did see some path for himself and Tonks that he couldn't see.

Professor Trelawney nodded her head, seemingly satisfied with Remus Lupin's promise. "See to it, dearie. Oh, and ensure you give the woman a Pepperup Potion in the morning over the next two days. She will catch a cold."

She inclined her head towards the pair of wizards and shuffled towards the door, swaying heavily to the left, not bothering to look behind her as the door closed, with Sirius rolling his eyes and following close behind, just in case the old bat passed out and needed escorting to the Hospital Wing, sensing Remus needed a moment alone.

The moment the doors shut closed, Lupin allowed his face to relax. His light hazel eyes almost seemed to dance, encouraged by Professor Trelawney's words to him.

As he moved to follow the pair inside to head to the Hospital Wing to check on Ted and Andromeda's daughter, it took the man a moment to realize as he paused, lingering in the doorway of the Hospital Wing that for the first time in his adult life, he felt as though he might actually have a future to look forward to, and in time, hopefully with her.

He could only hope that when Tonks woke up, she would be willing to listen…


	10. Chapter 10

**10**

**REMUS** Lupin was a werewolf. A…a _werewolf_. The shock and embarrassment Tonks felt at the nature of his secret being unceremoniously revealed by that snot-nosed pale little punk that she'd decked a pretty solid hit outside, had subsided as she walked out of the Hospital Wing fully revived from whatever that disgusting drink was the matron of the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey had forced down her throat.

The only thing that remained was the steady aching pain in her chest that he had been so ashamed and embarrassed about his condition that Lupin had somehow gotten it into his mind to keep it secret from her.

She exhaled a slightly shuddering breath, and almost as soon as the thoughts of what she would say to the man has sworn to protect her, Tonks felt her resolve to start to crumble and falter. It made her feel incredibly angry with herself.

She could not allow her fury with Malfoy to fade.

The moment Tonks realized she had misinterpreted Lupin's actions, his expressions throughout the short time she had known him, it was all beginning to make sense.

The strange almost, well, _wolfish_ aggression, the protectiveness, not wanting to let her stray too far from his line of sight, how he had reacted almost violently towards the same kid outside that, she'd given the black eye to, then.

Tonks paused at the end of the corridor, torn on whether or not to climb that moving Grand Staircase or not, though truth be told, her mind still felt as though it were reeling from what had happened earlier when she'd got it in her head to go off exploring on her own.

She sighed and didn't bother to tamper down the shudder that wafted its way down her back as a cold chill blew through the hall.

Though before she could decide if she wanted to risk chancing climbing the staircase again or turning back around and seeing if she could locate either Black or Lupin, suddenly, something behind her shifted in the darkness.

"Tonks?" called the low, raspy voice she'd not heard since outside at the Quidditch Pitch, though this time, the werewolf's voice sounded much more remorseful and sadder. Tonks turned around with a start as Remus stepped from the gloom and into the dim light emanated from the lighted torches in their sconces hung on the wall.

"Lupin," she answered flatly, wincing as she was unsure why her voice held such dread as she dared to look into the eyes of the man who was sworn to protect her.

"I'm…" He paused, biting down on his bottom lip as he searched his brain for the right words. Evidently, he found his voice and began to speak again. "I'm glad to see that you're looking much better rested. You look well," he complimented his partner, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips as he reached up with his hand and rubbed his neck.

Tonks slowly nodded her head in weary gratitude, not really sure what to say to the man who was a _werewolf_.

"S—so do you," she stammered, a light pink blush speckling its way along her cheeks. "M—much better than the _last_ time I saw you," she confessed, hoping she wasn't overstepping her mental boundaries here as it pertained to their partnership by addressing how he'd looked at Malfoy.

Lupin gave a start at her words before looking towards the ground at his feet bashfully, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

"I guess I do," he muttered darkly, as the pair of them stood in awkward silence for a while.

Tonks awkwardly tried her hardest to remain inconspicuous as she caught little glimpses of Lupin looking up at the hundreds of moving portraits littered along the walls of the Great Hall, at anywhere but her, she noticed, though her curiosity got the better of her when she noticed the faint little ghost of a smile tugging at his lips.

"This place, it really makes you that happy?" She looked at him in awe and wonder, thinking that the man looked years younger whenever he smiled as he was doing right now, even nervously at her, no doubt probably wondering how she was going to react to his big secret.'

"Mmm? Just the memory of it?" Lupin chuckled, though when she nodded, he grew serious and turned towards her. "This is the first place aside from my parents' home growing up as a little boy that I truly felt… _happy_. Accepted. Because of what I…what I _am_ ," he gasped out in a pained little choke that sounded almost suffocating.

Suddenly shy and cursing herself for her insensitivity, she bit down on her bottom lip hard enough to bleed and downcast her gaze, heat scorching her cheeks.

His mention of his…of his… _lycanthropy_ , at that, managed to bring the image of her hitting that kid outside clearly in her mind, though now an hour or two had passed, her knuckles still felt bruised from when she'd punched his lights out and probably broken his nose.

She could not understand the depths of her own anger as she could clearly hear the boy's insults still ringing in her eardrums, or maybe that was the sound of her own blood pounding in her eardrums.

Either way, it was disorienting, enough to cause a bout of dizziness.

Tonks swallowed down past the lump in her throat, still not sure how she was supposed to react. Should she scream? Yell? Cry? Say nothing and brush it off like it was nothing?

She rested her head back against the wall, having moved to the side of the Great Hall, feeling as though her back needed a support brace while she fought against the black spots creeping their way into the edges of her vision, threatening to blind her, letting out a long, deep exhale.

"Are you all right?" Lupin immediately asked, almost demanding her to answer him, sounding distressed.

Tonks nodded without opening her eyes, still heavily concentrating on regulating her breathing back to normal, willing the waves of nausea that wracked her body to quell.

The tension and unspoken words between the two of them were almost unbearable. She heaved a little muted groan, her shoulders slumping forward in defeat, though Tonks did not open her eyes.

She suspected this was _not_ going to be a conversation she was going to particularly relish, and nor, for that matter, was Remus, though she felt that Remus Lupin owed her the truth at this point in time.

Considering her father had more or less assigned him as her protector until he could catch up to them once he was safe, Tonks figured it was the bare minimum the man could do.

Still keeping her eyelids tightly shut, Tonks spoke, her shy, quiet voice soft and faint, reaching his wolfish hearing causing his ears to perk up at the sound of her voice.

"Why haven't we gone back to your house, Remus?" Neither he nor Sirius had made any mention of staying here in the castle, though she supposed they could.

That eccentric bloke who, in Tonks's mind (though she would never dare admit to the man, not knowing what kind of temper he had) kind of looked like Gandalf from the _Lord of the Rings_ movies she and Dad loved to watch so much, had made a passing quip about inviting the three of them to stay in the school's staff quarters while Sirius and Remus conducted their search for old Peter Pettigrew.

Lupin blinked owlishly at Tonks, feeling quite certain he had misheard the young woman leaning against the wall, looking as though she was in intense discomfort.

It was honestly the _last_ question he had expected from her. He'd not been prepared for this. He had, of course, been prepared to answer any questions she might have had about the nature of his affliction, but Remus had not anticipated that Dora would be asking about lodgings.

His only concern, he figured, outside of helping Padfoot search for Wormtail, was ensuring Ted's daughter's safety. He had made the man a promise.

And in his mind, this had meant escorting Dora Tonks to the one place that he knew Bellatrix Lestrange surely wouldn't be stupid enough to go to, and they were standing right in it.

Lestrange or any other of Lord Voldemort's fanatical followers wouldn't dare to attempt to breach Hogwarts' walls, at least not as long as Professor Dumbledore remained Headmaster. He knew Tonks was safe here.

Tonks slowly opened her eyes, sanguinely turning her head, and regarded Lupin with an abject look of trepidation and disbelief.

"You are not taking me back to your home, _are_ you. We're…we're staying _here_ , then?"

Her statement was phrased as more of an accusation than an inquiry, and the curtness of her voice made him cringe.

He did not know what this girl was playing at by not bringing up his lycanthropy, and it was beginning to make him feel incredibly uneasy as a result. Why hadn't Tonks?

"You will be _safe_ here, Dora. I promise. As long as Dumbledore remains Headmaster, your aunt will _not_ hurt you. This castle is protected by a multitude of different protective enchantments. She won't be getting _near_ you."

Tonks slowly nodded her head as her mind worked to process Lupin's statement, though it wasn't enough to keep her heart from sinking to the pit of her nauseous stomach as her chin rose defiantly as she met Lupin's gaze.

"I suppose that is what you'd have me _believe_ , Remus," she sighed, sounding exasperated, as though she really did not want to press the issue with the man, and yet, it seemed imperative that she do so. "You and Sirius both."

Her voice was flat and much too emotionless for his liking. Lupin leaned as near to Tonks as she would allow him.

Confused, he wasn't able to keep up with the direction of her thoughts and didn't know where this sudden shift in the young Squib woman's countenance was coming from.

"I don't understand," he told her, doing his best to keep the note of anxiety and worry from seeping its way to the surface of his reserved and quiet tones. "All I want is to keep you _safe_ ," he promised, hoping his voice was kind.

" _Is_ it?" Tonks indicated, her brows knitting together and her slightly mistrustful stare ripped his heart clean right out of his chest. "You wouldn't _leave_ me out here to fend for myself? I know that finding Pettigrew is your main mission here and if I help you look, I'm nothing but a liability since I can't use magic to protect myself, aren't I? I'm not _stupid_ , and I really wish people in this castle would quit treating me like I _am_ just because I'm a…a stupid _Squib_!" Tonks cried, turning her head sharply away. "You didn't tell me the _truth_ about your...problem," she began awkwardly. "Is that supposed to make me feel better, Lupin?"

"Leave you…what…?" Lupin tried to repeat her words, feeling utterly flabbergasted. "Tonks, no, that's _not_ what I'm going to do, and you should know that. No…"

He couldn't even manage to form his words as he desperately searched Dora Tonks's nervous face. He had not yet once seen Ted and Andromeda Tonks' daughter react to anything yet thus far with such an awful cynicism.

Something was wrong, and he had a feeling the confession of the nature of his lycanthropy was behind it.

Without so much as a second thought of what she would think, Remus stretched out his hand and rested it tenderly on her shoulder, hoping it would comfort Dora.

In the midst of whatever emotions were waging war within her mind, he felt Tonks tense and step away from him.

"Don't _touch_ me!" she snapped. Lupin jumped, immediately withdrawing his hand as though he'd been burned.

He was upset and angry with himself for whatever had placed such fear and doubt as to his intentions in her mind, thinking that without a shadow of a doubt, it had to be the nature of his condition.

In the split second that it took for him to summon his inner Gryffindor courage to lift his eyes to her face, Lupin realized that somehow, he had hurt Dora.

The only thing he could do at the moment was watching Tonks's anger and discomfort towards whatever was bothering him worsen. He didn't know what was wrong.

After what felt like an eternity spent in uncomfortable silence, Tonks looked towards Lupin with terrified eyes, her mind returning to her initial suspicions.

"You're not going to take me back, _are_ you," she voiced her fears as she trembled. "My dad's already _dead_."

"You don't _know_ that," he immediately countered, swallowing down past a lump in his throat, though her spiteful stare practically bore burning holes into the side of his skull, who all but squirmed under the young woman's scrutinizing gaze. "Ted is a powerful man, Dora, and not just in his magic. If anyone found a way to escape your aunt, it'll be your father. You have to _trust_ me. And to answer your other question, I have no intention of leaving your side," Lupin swallowed, hoping his eyes betrayed none of the emotions that he currently felt. "I made a promise to your father and I intend to _keep_ it. And…"

Lupin paused, hesitating to want to bring this up and fearing yet at the same time that he had no other choice. "What about my…my…condition?" he asked, unable to keep the note of bitterness from seeping into his voice as he tugged at a loose thread coming undone on his threadbare grey sweater. "You've said nothing on that yet since you found out the truth earlier. I'd like to know what you think of me. It truly doesn't _bother_ you, Dora, what I am?"

For a moment, Tonks could only blink owlishly at Lupin, struck dumbfounded and speechless by his query.

Her mind felt plagued with a dozen or so questions that she felt were unanswerable that had tormented her ever since that blond-haired kid outside had let it slip out.

She tried to force herself to understand what she couldn't even begin to fathom. The man, this wizard standing in front of her was a werewolf.

What was that even _like_? Did it hurt him? Was there any sort of a cure?

Why had Remus, at the very least, not told her the truth? Had it been that he hadn't wanted her to know of it?

Tonks swallowed down hard as she looked away for a moment.

She had told herself that when she ran into Lupin again that she wouldn't show any sort of emotion at the realization that her new partner was a werewolf, a beast.

She had promised herself that neither her hurt, bitterness, or anger would be the cause of anything other than apathy to be her reaction when the two of them talked. Except now she found that her resolve was failing.

"Why didn't you tell me the _truth_?" she asked hoarsely, blinking back the onset of salty tears in her lids, her eyes betraying just how hurt that she felt at the fact that her father's friend's son had more or less lied by omission to her. "Were you even _planning_ on telling me the truth?"

Remus awkwardly cleared his throat. "I…yes, in _time_ , but there was no telling how you'd react, Dora. Most people when they find out what I am can barely stomach to look me in the eyes, much less be under the same _roof_."

His harsh answer was almost as heart-wrenching as the question she had just posed to him, and Tonks shuddered as a wave of cold, empty anger slowly consumed her hurt.

"This entire time, you weren't going to tell me," she answered flatly, her words more of a statement than a question. "A—are you _ashamed_ of it, is that it? Did you think that I wouldn't be able to _handle_ it? Tell me."

Her mind utterly reeled at the notions of why Lupin had kept this from her in her thoughts. He thought she was delicate, fragile, she could see it in the man's darkening eyes.

Horrible, cruel sobs welled within the pit of her chest, but she forced herself to swallow them back down right now.

Lupin looked painfully at Tonks, seeing the shadow of agony that he had inadvertently placed her in by not confiding in her.

He'd hoped she wouldn't have had to find out like this, but now that Tonks had, he could only pray to Merlin that there was still time for him to try to fix this.

"I—I didn't _ask_ to be what I am," he murmured, heat scorching his cheeks as he found himself unable to look Ted's daughter in her piercing grey irises, not wanting his gaze to become ensnared and forced to see the hurt, betrayal, and disappointment. "I was bitten when I was only five years old. Another wolf snuck into my window at night and bit me out of retaliation against my father for something he had said against other werewolves. What I am, there _is_ no cure for people like…people like _me_. There's a potion called Wolfsbane that I take straight for two weeks daily leading up to each full moon cycle that allows me to keep my mind when I transform. If I don't take it, I get…violent. Savage."

He shuddered just thinking what the old days of his transformations used to be like, thanking Merlin at least that he'd had the help of the Marauders to be by his side.

"Does it…" Tonks paused, lowering her voice an octave, sounding more saddened and curious than upset, which Remus supposed was a good thing. "Does it hurt?"

He nodded, lowering his gaze. "It does. It's _excruciating_. Your bones breaking and shifting and then putting themselves back together after each transformation isn't easy to recover from," he growled, not bothering to hide the resentment he felt for the one who'd bit him out of his voice. "Recovering from each cycle can sometimes take me several days, even upwards of a week," he confessed, thinking, and hoping that perhaps if he divulged more of the nature of his condition, Tonks would understand why he had chosen not to want to reveal it to her, that he was only keeping Ted's daughter safe from the monster that he knew himself to be.

What he wanted, he could not have, not in the way that he truly wanted, he realized with a look of abject horror coupled with disappointment etched on his lined and scarred face.

For a moment, as Tonks met his gaze, he could have sworn the young Squib saw it, but just as quickly as the fleeting emotion darted across her face, it was gone, replaced by something fiercer, more intense.

Lupin ducked his head, the intensity of her sharp gaze piercing him, burning his insides hotter than any dragon fire could ever flame. He didn't think he could look.

"Does it…bother you?" he asked, his voice hushed and faint, wincing as he heard the faltering crack and dip.

He squeezed his eyes shut, a muscle in his jaw twitching and behind his eyelid as well as it spasmed, bracing himself for the inevitable answer she was sure to give.

That yes, she was horrified and repulsed by what she was, that he would not blame her if she chose Sirius as a protector. He was certainly normal and more handsome.

He could provide for her, protect her in ways that he could not. Lupin felt something hot and searing and ugly begin to well within the confines of his wretched chest as the wolf within his mind snarled its savage displeasure at the horrible image of Tonks with Sirius that almost made him want to burn his retinas and wish he were blind, though as he waited, he realized it didn't come.

Much to Lupin's surprise, his eyes flung open as he heard the sound of her delicate footsteps coming closer and felt the tempered strength of her hand cup his chin, tilting his face upward and forcing him to meet her gaze.

Lupin's face drained of colors as it took him a moment to realize Tonks was smiling at him. It was a strained smile, yes, and did not quite meet her eyes, but it was a far-cry better sight than seeing her so distraught over the ambiguity and uncertainty of not knowing Ted's fate.

"It _doesn't_ , Remus," she whispered. "I believe you. You didn't _ask_ for this lifestyle. I'm sorry people treat you so horribly," she muttered, a dark look of anger flitting across her face and into her eyes, though sensing Lupin's growing discomfort, not wanting her pity, it was gone, and she shot him a smile that made his tongue feel thick in his throat. "Well, then…I—I know I can't offer you much. I—I'm not magical, a—and I'm kind of a klutz, but…I can at _least_ be kind to you, and try to make up for a lifetime of hurt that you've had to suffer from those stupid arseholes," she snapped, not liking the idea of anyone berating the kind and sweet man in front of her. "I'm not afraid of you. I only hope that…it will be _enough_ for you, Remus," she whispered.

Slowly, but surely, she lowered her hand from his chin, the pads of her fingertips leaving trails of sparks in their wakes as they ghosted along the column of his throat.

"You are a _kind_ man, a _good_ man, with a pure heart. I can tell it whenever I look into your eyes. And…" she paused, hesitating biting down on her bottom lip. "I do not think that you will hurt me," she whispered, her voice now faint.

Her eyes softened as she looked at Lupin, who felt his breaths catch in his throat.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat that was rendering it feeling on fire, and by some miracle of Merlin, managed to find his voice again.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth," he apologized, shooting her a pained look, inhaling another sharp breath as he now felt her fingertips intertwine with his. He had to resist the urge to lower his gaze, but Remus bloody felt it.

She was…she was _holding_ his hand, a _werewolf's_ hand, and Tonks had not flinched away in shock or disgust.

The day's events and the shock that Tonks was holding onto Lupin's hand and seemed to show no signs of wanting to pull away or explain away the slip in her grip had caused the two of them to stand in awkward silence in the darkest corner of the Great Hall for quite some time.

Their minds collectively raced for something to say to break their embarrassment. Neither could tell whether their flushed faces were a result of the heat emanating from the lighted torch in its sconce that was to Tonks's right, or their accelerated, loud heartbeats in their chests.

Finally, both of them spoke at the same time in an effort to close the awkward gap that settled between them.

"You were ah…" Tonks began at the same time that Lupin spoke.

"I think you should rest," Lupin said before he realized he had accidentally spoken over Ted's daughter.

The partners cut each other off abruptly and laughed at the coincidence. Lupin motioned with a wave of his hand not currently intertwined with Dora's to continue, but the girl shook her head. "Well, I—I _would_ , but I don't know where the sleeping quarters are," Tonks smiled.

"Follow me," Lupin said, smiling, secretly feeling glad that she didn't relinquish control of his hand as he started to guide her out of the Great Hall's corridors, leading her down another dark hallway, motioning towards the door. "It'll be a bit cramped, I'm afraid, but the rooms are warm, and you should hopefully have all you need."

Tonks nodded and opened the door, poking her head in the doorway to look around. The bedroom was small but had a warm fire, a table with two chairs, a dresser, and what looked to be a soft, comfortable bed big enough for two.

Without even realizing she was doing it, she led Lupin towards the fireplace, still holding his hand. Their gazes locked for longer than was appropriate, Tonks bloody _knew_ it, but without any semblance of hesitation on her part, she stared right the hell back, not giving a damn if the man in front of her was a wolf or not.

She suspected there were stranger things in this wizarding world of her parents' than a werewolf or two. However, neither of them made a motion to move, as if breaking the intense concentration of the look that was passing between them would steal something away, something that they would never get back. Something too precious to take lightly.

Tonks leaned in closer until her hands were practically splayed against his chest, surprising even herself for her boldness. Oh, she'd had plenty of customers, guys, ask her out while on shift at the café she worked, but she'd always managed to brush them off, disinterested.

She could not explain wanting Lupin's kiss. Wanting to feel his lips move in sync with hers. She wanted…wanted _him_. Her brain fought and raced to determine when she'd begun to feel the need of having him close to her. Maybe it had started in the park?

She couldn't say, but something had blinded her towards this wizard.

Lupin knew if he lingered in this dimly-lit bedroom in front of the fireplace any longer, holding onto Dora Tonks's bone-white and beautiful hand, fighting against the onset of trembling that was threatening to betray his emotions and desires for the young Squib, he'd kiss her.

He wanted to feel her soft lips, to feel for himself if they were as soft and luscious as they looked. His fingers twitched at his sides, resisting the urge to caress the outline of them with the pads of his rough and calloused fingertips.

He was certain she could love him, if only he were not a wolf. Remus watched Dora, simply watching his movements, and swore his wolfish heightened sense of sight picked up on a small, minuscule glimmer of emotions in her eyes as he beheld the girl in his wretched sight.

There was the irrational part of Remus that fought against the logical side of his brain, the side that told him he was too old for her, too poor, and entirely too dangerous for the young Squib, that was currently winning against it.

He hoped the fleeting look of intensity in her eyes was not simply what he had wished to see.

He… _wanted_ it. And he could not have it. It was too dangerous. Lupin reluctantly shrugged out of Tonks's grasp and pulled away, not wanting to take advantage of her like this.

Instead of acting on his baser desires and taking her head in his and kissing her, he simply said in a defeated, frustrated tone as he sighed, "You've had a long day, Tonks. You look tired. You should—you should get some rest, Dora." He turned away and made to head towards outside.

Tonks breathed out a shaking sigh of relief, relieved to be saved from herself and the inappropriate thoughts of her partner she'd only known for a couple of days at best that threatened to take control of her actions at any time.

"Wait!" Tonks cried out, flinging an arm out in front of her and winding itself around his bicep as though she thought she could prevent the man from leaving again, wracking her brain to think of anything to keep him close.

Her plea was enough. Lupin froze and turned.

"Stay with me tonight," she pleaded. She peeked over her shoulder at the bed. "For…for protection. In case that creepy boggart you got rid of earlier comes back," she swallowed hard. "Share the bed with me. I promise I don't bite at all."

After a few moments of stunned silence, he turned and made his way towards the bed and laid down, looking highly out of his comfort zone, but there was a strange look on his face that suggested he wasn't altogether displeased.

"Happy?" he joked, scooting over to the far side of the bed to make enough room for Tonks to lay on her side.

"Yup," she grinned, enjoying her minor victory. "Well, um…goodnight then, Remus," she murmured, turning over, and facing the other way, as she did not want Lupin to see the content little smile snaking its way along her face as she drifted off into a peaceful sleep, knowing that as long as her partner was by her side, she was safe.

She didn't know it was that she had woken up sometime in the late hours of the night with Lupin's arm draped loosely across her waist. Tonks had been laying on her right side, facing Remus, the blanket had been covering her securely now pushed aside, caught just underneath the crook of the man's elbow as he slept.

It was evident that both of them had slept soundly enough that they'd wound up entwined like this together when they had moved during the throes of their sleep.

For a moment, Tonks was startled but relaxed into the warm embrace when she realized just how inviting it felt to be wrapped in Lupin's arms, thinking she felt safe.

She lay in the dark, remembering how she'd longed to kiss him earlier in front of the fireplace in this very room.

How her attraction to the man was steadily growing, despite the revelation that the wizard was also a werewolf, that did not taint or mar her opinions of Remus in any way.

Before she knew what was happening, Tonks was eyeing Lupin cautiously as he slept, hoping he didn't wake and notice he was being observed. His peaceful expression made her smile.

He looked years younger when he slept too, in addition to when he smiled. His face didn't seem so lined and careworn, the lines of worry and stress on his forehead had disappeared.

The soft snores that emanated from somewhere in the back of his throat almost made her giggle, and she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop it.

She allowed her mind to wander to what her life would be like if they really were ever to…be in a _relationship_.

Tonks felt she could easily get used to concern and care that he exhibited for her, and she was quite confident that was no finer sensation, no more pleasant a feeling that lying nestled firmly against him in the warm darkness, entwined in the unexpected but not unwanted embrace.

Her wandering thoughts morphed into dreams of Lupin, and she burrowed closer to the man's chest and nestled further under the mossy green duvet blanket, quickly falling into a peaceful sleep.

Whether or not Lupin was made aware of it while he slept, his body unconsciously sensed Dora Tonks's nearness. He let out a content little sigh and drew Tonks toward him in his sleep.

She didn't resist, content to stay like this for the rest of the night.


	11. Chapter 11

**11**

**TONKS** woke up the next morning with the sun on her face, her mind replaying the memories of her happy and pleasant dreams of Lupin that had swirled in her mind through the night…and rolled over on her side of the bed to find it empty.

She felt her eyes widen in shock and surprise, bolting upright from the bed, searching for any sign of Lupin. There was none.

Desperately, she looked to the left and right, trying to turn her head in all directions to see if she could spot any sign of Remus. None that she could see.

"No…" she breathed, her voice cracking slightly as her mind raced frantically, at too fast a pace for her to keep up with as her mind worked to create a plausible scenario that would explain Lupin's absence, why he'd not woken her up.

She was terrified that Remus had left her alone.

"No, he wouldn't do that to me," Tonks whispered, utterly horrified, though she was unable to stamp down the searing feelings of hot shame and embarrassment in her chest. "He would _never_ do that to me… _would_ he? H—he _promised_ ," she growled under her breath through clenched teeth as she stood upright.

Tonks dressed relatively quickly, barely noticing her hands raking through her shaggy pink hair trying to smooth down any stray strands. She smoothed down the wrinkles in her jeans and basic black t-shirt as best as she possibly could as she rushed out the door, leaving it standing open in her urgency.

Finding no one in the Great Hall and wondering just how bloody long she'd managed to sleep in for, Tonks decided to search outside, thinking maybe Lupin and Black had just stepped out for some fresh air or something, half hoping and expecting to find the two wizards sitting on the topmost step of the castle's entryway.

Her heart sank to the pit of her churning stomach when she didn't find them where she expected them to be. No sign of them anywhere.

Tonks stood, feeling her face drain of colors, shocked, unable to determine her next course of action or where she should start to look. Remus had offhandedly mentioned something last night during dinner about searching for this Pettigrew bloke in the Forbidden Forest.

She raked her slender fingers through her hair in confusion and growing worried as the emotion wormed its way into the pit of her belly, staring out into the vast emptiness of the luscious green, yet desolate castle grounds.

A voice from behind her shook Tonks from her thoughts. A breathy voice, a female's voice, she thought.

"Your partner escorted Mr. Black into the Forbidden Forest." Tonks spun around, gasping slightly, at the new arrival before her, thinking she had never seen a woman with eyes so big and bug-eyed as the woman's now standing behind her, peering at her from behind thick black Coke-bottle lenses.

The woman was dressed most unusually, though Tonks was quickly learning that wasn't entirely out of place for witches and wizards in the wizarding world, with most not having mastered the knack of dressing, well, normally, unless they were as Tonks was and had been born to parents of non-magical blood or had a family member who was a Muggle or Squib to coach them on how to dress right when out in the general public.

At least, that's what Sirius had _told_ her, she thought, worried. Tonks parted her lips open to speak, though before she could ask this strange woman her name, the witch raised a heavily jeweled hand and cut her off, her bangles on her wrist jangling and clinking with her movements as she did so.

"Professor Sibyl Trelawney, dearie. No need for you to tell me your name, Dora Tonks, I know who you are. Mr. Lupin asked me to tell you they would return by nightfall at best. They set out in search of Peter Pettigrew. They did not want you to worry, dear."

Tonks slowly nodded her head at all the information, taking a deep breath in the hopes it would calm her nerves, partially to try to calm herself, but mostly out of relief that her initial fears a second ago were unfounded.

Lupin hadn't left her alone as she feared. He was _going_ to come back, and so was Sirius.

"Did they say how far into the woods they were going?" Tonks asked, her gaze sweeping the length of the line of trees at the edge of the Forest, furrowing her thin eyebrows into a slight frown.

Professor Trelawney shook her head and shoved her glasses further up the bridge of her nose.

"They did not. But Mr. Lupin was adamant about not wanting to wake you. I believe he said something about how cute you look when you sleep, and that Lupin wanted to let you sleep in."

At that, Tonks felt a light pink blush creep along her cheeks, which only intensified when she heard Trelawney let out an amused sounding snort through her nose. The Professor looked admirably towards the Squib.

"The two of you will make a lovely couple, dear. I don't think you could ask for a better man by your side than Mr. Lupin. I never had the pleasure of teaching him," she sighed, huffing in frustration and almost sounded disappointed with Remus, "though from what my colleagues tell me and what I remember of him during his time here as a student, he was exceptionally gifted. _Kind_."

Tonks's blush intensified as Professor Trelawney continued, staggering forward in almost a bumbling manner as she shuffled towards the topmost step and took to joining Dora as she sat on the top step, keeping her gaze fixated on the Forbidden Forest, wondering where he was.

"Th—thank you," she stammered, lowering her lashes until her gaze was now fixated on her black sneakers.

She felt guilty and more than a little bit remorseful about not telling the Hogwarts Professor the truth about her growing fondness for the werewolf and wizard Remus John Lupin, and yet part of her was enjoying the whimsical fantasy of being his girlfriend.

_There had been that look in his eyes last night_ , she thought, chewing at the wall of her mouth while she pondered it. Though before she could dwell on it any further, Professor Trelawney reached over, laying a warbling and slightly timid hand on Tonks's wrist, giving her hand an affectionate little pat before pulling back.

"It is clear Mr. Lupin cares very much for you, dearie. And you for him. I think that you both are very much fond of one another." There was a beat. A pause. "Maybe even in _love_."

Her voice was breathless-sounding and awestruck.

Tonks offered a tiny little half-smile in response, though inwardly she was shocked. They hadn't even known they were presenting a charade to the other Hogwarts staff until Lupin had retired to her bedroom with her just last night.

Nothing about their interactions so far up until that point had been a falsehood. Maybe they really had grown close throughout this awful mess Tonks found herself dumped in and as a consequence of this while she thought over all that had happened so far, Tonks didn't realize that lost in her thoughts of Remus, her face presented exactly the look the Trelawney had just described, the look of a young woman in love, but scared and doubtful of that, too.

Remus was a werewolf, and it had been clear judging by his tone of how he had described his condition to her last night, it was clear he held a low opinion of himself, one that Tonks wished Lupin could get past, then.

She did not like to hear the self-deprecation in his quiet voice, nor hear the note of bitterness he had addressed his condition with when Tonks had asked him about it.

Before she could fathom what was happening, the words tumbled unchecked from Dora's lips before she could stop herself, not sure why she was confessing this to the Divination Professor, of all people, but here, she was.

"I don't think Lupin would go for someone like me, Professor," Tonks grumbled darkly under her breath. "I'm not… _special_. Not a witch-like my mum was. Like _you_ are. Why would he want to be with a _nobody_ like me when he could have another witch, someone who understands this world? Besides, I think there's a part of him thinks himself a danger, that he wouldn't want to put me in harm's way."

Tonks turned her gaze to the side and had expected Trelawney to agree with her, though the somber expression the Divination Professor shot her told Dora Tonks otherwise.

She pursed her lips into a thin line as she heaved a little groan as she struggled to rise to her feet, only able to stand upright when Tonks rose along with her, gripping tightly onto Sibyl's forearm to prevent her falling.

"Thank you, dearie," Trelawney murmured in that low breathy voice of hers that Tonks supposed would have otherwise sent a chill down her spine. She spoke as if she knew more about Tonks's situation than she let on to her.

It was a moment before the Divination Professor spoke again, and when she did, her voice was much more solemn and subdued.

"I think you will find yourself surprised by Mr. Lupin's actions in the days to come, dear. Don't be so quick to dole out judgment. He cares for you."

Tonks looked thoughtfully at the Professor. "Thank you, but…" Her voice trailed off as she looked at the woman's clouded eyes behind her smudged glasses lenses.

She remembered what Lupin had said about this woman standing next to her being a Seer, that Trelawney was capable of (every now and again) making a prediction. Tonks almost rolled her eyes to herself, not sure if she bought into the whole fortune-telling nonsense, and yet, her curiosity was piqued. She just had to know for sure.

"Professor," she began hesitantly, speaking slowly while Tonks searched her brain for the right words. "Y—you said that he cares for me. I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I don't think as long as the guy that can turn into a rat, Pettigrew?" she asked, glancing towards the witch for confirmation, and only when Trelawney nodded her head did Tonks continue speaking. "As long as he's still at large, I think Remus's focus is on… _other_ things, and a relationship with me is the last thing on his mind," she said, feeling somewhat awkward to be bringing this up, but she felt like she had no other choice since she wouldn't get a straight answer from either Black or Lupin when asked. "You can predict the future, right?" Tonks asked, and the moment Trelawney gave a curt nod of her head did she continued, hoping she wasn't overstepping a boundary by asking. "I—I want to know what's happened to my father. He…I think that my aunt took him," Tonks whispered, horrified to hear herself confess her immediate suspicion.

" _Bellatrix_ ," Trelawney spat with no small measure of disgust laced throughout her soft and breathy hoarse voice.

Tonks blinked owlishly at the Divination Professor, the shock evident on her face before she cursed herself, remembering this woman was some kind of fortune-teller or Seer and would have already known about her deranged aunt.

"Y—yes, that's right," she whispered in a quiet tone.

Trelawney made an odd disgruntled strangled sound at the back of her throat and held out her arm.

"Hold out your hand, dearie, I will need to hold it in order for this to work, and you will need to close your eyes, my child, for a moment if I am to be better in tuned into the infinite beyond," she murmured, her tone much more somber now.

Tonks hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second as she nervously held out her hand, sliding her cool palm into Trelawney's surprisingly warm left hand, and waited as the Seer closed her eyes and inhaled a long, slow breath.

Tonks felt her heart within the confines of her chest begin to race faster as she did as the Divination Professor had asked and closed her eyes. She felt her breaths hitch in her throat and come to almost a standstill, and she swore she felt herself being transported into another time and place.

She could remember nights when her mum would brush her hair in front of the window.

That was almost a decade ago, she and her mum would sing their favorite Tears for Fears songs and the crackling logs and cinders of the fire in the heart would sap and sway along with their voices.

Dora had a wonderful singing voice, her mum would say, a voice as pretty as her face. She'd grow up to be a hell of a beauty, Dad would say, and a musician too, even.

Her mum would tell her how, when she was old enough, guys would be lining up outside their door to try to date her. Tonks squeezed her eyes shut as a single tear escaped her lid. Her mother had been such a horrible _liar_.

Tonks's breath caught in her front as behind her closed lids, her retinas burned with an image of her aunt.

Once pretty, perhaps even gorgeous Bellatrix Lestrange had been, but not these days. In place of the beauty her aunt once was, was little more than a beast.

And said _beast_ now had her nails raking down the side of her father's bruised and battered face, more purple and bluer than pale. Bellatrix's cheeks flushed red with ire but so did Ted Tonks's face. The cracking sound of the back of Lestrange's palm still remained on Ted's ears, but they weren't Ted's ears anymore, as Tonks had taken his place.

Helplessness dawned on Tonks from her place on the dirtied hardwood floor of whatever safehouse Bellatrix had brought her to, the grit digging into her sore kneecaps.

She let a cry and growl escape from her lips at the same time as her aunt stalked towards her, wand in hand.

Tears poured relentlessly and unceasing as they flowed down her cheeks as she feebly shook her head in anger and pleading. " _Get away_!" she shouted, but in Ted's voice, snarling at Bellatrix Lestrange with a frustrated kick.

"Oh, Teddy Bear, not very _nice_ to speak to your own family member like that, _is_ it?" crooned Bellatrix in a sickening voice that made Tonks want to puke. She did not know what had happened to her father, or why she was seeing through his eyes and speaking in his voice, but the only thing she could manage was a ragged, pain-filled gasp. "You're going to tell me where your little _brat_ went, boy. I know she's off with that bastard wretch of a wolf, Tonks. Where _are_ they?" she demanded through gritted teeth. " _Hogwarts_? I will give you _one_ more chance to tell me, Ted."

Her tone seemed a little too knowing as Bellatrix fell silent and waited in anticipation for Ted Tonks to speak.

Ted's only response was to spit in Bellatrix's face, who reeled back from him in disgust, scrunching her nose and wiping at her cheek with the back of her palm angrily.

"I'm not telling you _shit_ , Bella, do whatever you and your _pisscloak_ over there of a husband want with me, and let me drag you down to the seven layers of hell myself," Ted snarled, baring his teeth. Ted scrambled backward away from Bellatrix as far as his broken and bruised limbs would allow him, but she stopped him, feigning surprised hurt and anger.

"Oh, Teddy, dear," she protested mockingly. "You cannot _leave_ now, think of all the _fun_ you and I are having."

Her pseudo-sweetness made Tonks want to vomit, and the sickening sense of dread in Tonks's stomach was only intensified as Tonks in her father's body spat out a mouthful of blood and turned back up with a clouded vision to look at Bellatrix, a sweetly simpering smile on her face.

" _What_?" he exclaimed sourly, wondering what fresh torture and hell his wife's sister had planned for him now.

It _wasn't_ going to work, he wasn't telling her a Merlin-damned thing of where his daughter had gone. Not on his _life_. He would rather _die_ first, and Ted had a sinking feeling that it might just come to that before the night was out.

That his wife's sister would kill him. He watched, stunned, as Bellatrix gave a sharp jerk of her head behind her, gesturing towards her husband, who quickly stalked his way out of whatever room they were in to retrieve the object that Bella spoke.

It took her a moment to find her voice, and when she did, it made Tonks sick.

"I think, Teddy Bear, if _you_ won't tell me where your filthy Squib _brat_ went, we'll just get _her_ to come to _us_ …"

She waited excitedly as she stood to her fullest height, towering over Ted's curled-up position in the corner.

Tonks felt a chill course through her veins upon hearing and processing her aunt's words, the gleefulness Lestrange seemed to derive in eliciting pain and torture. After an interminable wait, the door at the opposite end of the room burst open with a loud, resounding clang, loud enough that it shook, rattling on its old, rusted hinges.

In Rodolphus Lestrange's clutches was a prisoner, a young woman close to Tonks's age, by the looks of her, filthy from whatever hovel they had kept her in, barefoot, her feet scratched and bleeding, though dressed elaborately enough in a light silver sleeveless formal silk gown, as though she had just come from attending a formal event, perhaps a wedding, if Tonks had to hazard a guess.

The prisoner was tall, taller than Dora was by a good foot or two, at least, with luscious golden blonde hair cascading in ringlets and curls to just below the shoulders. The captive writhed and screamed, trying to get away from Bellatrix's husband's grasp, but her efforts were futile.

The Death Eater had only traveled a few paces when Tonks's heart very nearly ceased its rhythmic beating in her chest and the color drained from her face with realization as the prisoner in question lifted her head and looked towards Bellatrix Lestrange, with no small amount of hatred burning in her glistening pale sky-blue irises.

The hostage in Rodolphus Lestrange's grips was none other than Tonks's best friend from the café where she worked at.

Bellatrix had her mate, Norah, as a hostage, and was using her best friend and father to lure her out.

Tonks wanted to open her mouth to scream, though Ted's voice was making no noise when she tried, wishing she could use her _own_ voice to plead with her aunt to stop, that she'd come.

But the words wouldn't come out.

Tonks wanted nothing more than to be back in her own body and find out where they were. She stared ahead at the space in front of her through her dad's eyes, unable to take her eyes off of her fellow waitress and best friend, as she struggled and fought against her aunt's partner as much as whatever strength she had left was going to allow her to.

It wasn't enough though. Her angry, terrified wails filled the vast and decrepit room and tore her heart into a million pieces.

Unable to breathe, Tonks turned pleading eyes towards Bellatrix, and she couldn't be sure, but she swore that her aunt almost seemed to be burning a hole straight through her father's eyes, and she was able to tell that his daughter was somehow in his place.

Bellatrix coldly turned her head to the side and the vengeful glower on her pale features chilled Tonks's blood to ice in her veins.

"You really thought I was _stupid_ , little thing, _didn't_ you?" she asked rhetorically, and Tonks knew without a shadow of a doubt that somehow, she knew who she was talking to, not Ted, but her. "The Dark Lord and I have spies _everywhere_. Even here in Hogsmeade," she scoffed, and Tonks's blood chilled even further.

_Hogsmeade_ , Tonks thought wildly. _That's not far from here_.

Tonks knew then that her Aunt Bellatrix meant to finish off that which she had been afraid of, that her aunt would hurt her dad, and now her best friend too. She was going to kill them both, and soon.

She had no time to feel her heart soar at the sight of seeing her father still alive, and Norah too, for that matter, and as Norah lifted her head, a curl tumbling in front of her face as she did so to look at Bellatrix, her expression held the same expression as Dora's. it was as if her friend knew what was about to happen as if Norah had been waiting for it.

Though before Tonks could try to reach her aunt somewhere from her spot on the front steps of Hogwarts, Lestrange turned back to face her, still kneeling on the floor.

"I will give you until _midnight_ , Squib," she sneered, the edges of her lips curling upward in disgust. "The Shrieking Shack. You'll know it when you see it and hear it, little dove. Come _alone_ , without the _wolf_ , and don't even _think_ about sending a message to this one's little boyfriend, I don't want the _Aurors_ on our trail, do we? Come _alone_ , and believe me, I shall _know_ if you don't. If you _don't_ , our friend Fenrir Greyback shall have himself a little _snack_ , and you'll find that he rather likes _blondes_ , especially _pretty_ little blondes like your _friend_ here, dear," she snarled, jerking her head back towards Norah, and almost as if on cue, Rodolphus took that as his sign to seize a fistful of Norah's golden blonde locks, tugging on her curls and pulling her head back, exposing the pale column of her throat.

"Shh," the man whispered into the shell of Norah's ear, causing the young blonde woman to shirk away in disgust.

" _Please_ ," she begged in a lowly, pitiful whimper. "Please don't kill me. I—I won't tell anyone you're here. I promise…"

In one swift movement, Rodolphus Lestrange dragged his fingertips along the young woman's relatively high cheekbones as he seized a fistful of her hair in his strong, calloused grip. Tonks's friend had little time to register the pain that wracked her entire body as he yanked at the young woman's thick blonde curls, shoving her head back down against a small wooden side table so hard that her forehead slammed onto the hard surface with a loud thud.

Tonks winced and squeezed her eyes shut at the dazed look in her best mate's eyes as a tiny little cry of pain left her pink lips.

" _Shh_ ," Rodolphus Lestrange said again and her hair was yanked back a second time and her head slammed down against the table.

This time, Tonks could tell Norah felt no pain at all but saw only black and the young blonde slumped against the floor, unconscious, barely breathing as her breaths in her chest slowed.

And it was this that caused Tonks's own scream that left her lips to pull her out of the vision that Trelawney had just seen.

Gasping and panting heavily, not even aware slick tears had begun to pour from her lids, Tonks looked around herself, seeing Trelawney slowly come back into focus sitting next to her, dazed.

Professor Trelawney was looking troubled and confused, as though she couldn't quite remember what had happened.

Before Tonks could open her mouth to ask after her well-being, not liking how pale and clammy the Seer was looking, a noise drew her attention, coming towards the edge of the entrance that led into the heart of the Forbidden Forest. She strained her eyes into the encroaching afternoon sun to glimpse whoever it was that came to.

Surely it had to be Lupin and Black. She took a nervous couple of steps off the front entryway of the castle in that general direction, waiting eagerly, painfully twisting her fingers together, not at all sure to make of whatever vision she and Trelawney had just witnessed, but she did know one thing: her father was _alive_.

Time itself around her seemed to come to a halt, her breaths refusing to leave her lungs as she fought to control her tears. Tonks closed her eyes in relief and felt the air rush back into her starved lungs as her eyes could start to make out the familiar silhouettes of her cousin and Remus as the man came up the path.

Lupin grinned shyly at Tonks, happy to see her as if only a couple of hours spent away from her side was entirely too long.

Tonks raced towards the pair of wizards as they walked up the path. Part of her wanted to punch him for the worry he'd caused her, and the surge of adrenaline venting in her veins at the vision Trelawney had just shown her.

But most of her wanted nothing more than to throw her aching arms around his neck and hold him close, but Tonks managed to stop herself shortly before reaching Lupin and Sirius, staring at the pair of men in wonder, coupled with a horrible sense of dread as they came back sans rat.

Lupin immediately spoke up, sensing the worry that was evident on her face as plain as her nose on her face, concerned.

"What is it?" he questioned, looking from Tonks to Professor Trelawney as his face paled in shock. Something had happened between Ted's daughter and the Divination Professor.

Tonks swallowed down hard past the lump in her throat as she flitted her gaze from Sirius to Remus, both of whom, their brows were furrowed into equally troubled frowns as they stared.

"My—my aunt," she whispered, her voice small and faint. "She—she's got my dad and my best friend Norah in Hogsmeade. In a place called the Shrieking Shack. She—she told me to come alone at midnight, Remus. If I don't, my aunt…she'll _kill_ them."

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

**12**

When Norah came to, her back was resting against a hard surface that at first, she couldn't discern, her surroundings totally dark. It took a few minutes of her sitting slumped against the disgusting wall coated in a thick layer of grime and dust for the fog of confusion the twenty-six-year-old blonde pretty witch and werewolf found herself in to dissipate.

Everything came back to Norah swiftly and suddenly. She and her boyfriend, Ollie, a seasoned Auror, had been away at a family friend's wedding. Ollie's second cousin twice removed or something.

Ollie had been in the middle of a heavy conversation with Kingsley Shacklebolt over what to do about new evidence that suggested Peter Pettigrew was the one behind selling the Potters out to Lord Voldemort, at least according to evidence that Professor Dumbledore had presented, extracted memories from Sirius Black himself.

Black was, at least from what little Ollie could tell Norah in private, being given one chance to bring in Pettigrew for questioning and hopefully attempt to clear his name.

Norah had stepped outside of the wedding tent erected in the couples' backyard of their home in the Wales countryside, and then everything after that went hazy.

She could only guess Lestrange had managed to hit her with a full-bind paralysis spell or had managed to slip a Sleeping Draught into her glass of wine that she had been nursing on that she'd picked up from the reception table in the tent.

Those were the only plausible explanations the young blonde witch could think of for what happened, how she'd ended up here. But Merlin's Beard, Ollie was going to be bloody _pissed_ with her.

He'd always warned her not to wander off without him. Her love was incredibly overprotective of her, sometimes to the point of being suffocating, but there was a large part of Norah that cherished it.

She enjoyed feeling so loved and looked after. A noise caused her wolfish to perk upright and she struggled to turn her head to the side to see what was going on.

Ted struggled to focus his clouded vision more than a few feet in front of himself across the room at Dora's best friend from the café they worked at, wincing as the pretty little blonde lifted her chin and jutted it out slightly defiantly to better meet his gaze. He did his best not to cringe and hoped that the disdain for her rapidly swelling skin underneath her right eye as her eye blackened didn't show on his face, though Ted Tonks knew by the pained, fleeting expression Norah Jameson shot him that she'd seen.

"Why didn't you _tell_ me all those years ago that you were a witch, Jameson?" he barked, cringing at how rough and hoarse from misuse over the last several hours sounded, no doubt from screaming himself raw at his wife's sister until his voice broke.

Norah glanced down at the fragmented remains of her broken wand that Rodolphus had snapped in two upon her abduction from the wedding. She swallowed down hard and kicked aside the broken fragments with her bloodied bare heel, wishing she had her shoes. She crinkled her nose in disgust at the number of germs that had been littered here in the Shrieking Shack.

Norah blinked as Ted coughed. The young blonde nervously bit down on her bottom lip and toyed with a golden curl of her hair that ended at just below her shoulders as she looked at Ted, not liking at all how Dora's father was faring.

"I—I'm _sorry_ , Mr. Tonks," Norah apologized, surprised she could even find her voice at all with how much she'd screamed.

Her gaze nervously flitted towards the fragments of her wand before she summoned the courage enough to meet Ted's gaze.

"I—I _wanted_ to tell you and Dora, b—but…growing up, my—my parents thought if Dora knew the truth that I was a—a witch and Ollie was a wizard, she'd get _jealous_ , so my parents had us pretend to be Muggles whenever we came over."

Norah swallowed down hard past the lump in her throat as it hollowed and constricted.

"Mum and Dad always told us Dora was a target, growing up because of _her_ ," she hissed, spitting her words as though they were poison that had settled upon her tongue as she cast a dark glower towards the now-closed door that Bellatrix had vanished behind, going only Merlin knew where.

"And you didn't think to tell me or my wife?" Ted prodded gently, hoping he didn't sound too accusatory.

Norah nodded, a look of shame marring her pretty features as she toyed with a lock of her hair.

"We figured she'd be safer if we pretended we were Muggles. I—I got the job at the restaurant alongside Tonks to keep an _eye_ on her, to try to do what I could to keep her _safe_. Oh, _God_ , but Tonks is going to _hate_ me when she learns the truth!" Norah moaned, squeezing her eyes shut as a single tear escaped her right eyelid at the thought of what her only best friend would say to her when the truth was revealed, she'd _hate_ her. "We never meant to _trick_ you both."

Ted slowly nodded his head, though even that hurt. Everything hurt like hell.

He felt battered, bruised, and broken. Merlin Himself only knew how many times Bella had used the Cruciatus Curse on him. He could only send a silent prayer to Meda, Merlin blesses her soul, that Dora wouldn't fall for it.

That she would stay well the bloody hell _away_ , and that Lyall Lupin's boy would keep his daughter safe. He and Norah would simply make their own way out, though it was going to be difficult with him being the only one who possessed a wand, as wands were finicky devices, and resisted other users save for the ones that chose the wizard or witch at the age of eleven. At least, that's what Ted had recollected Mr. Ollivander in Diagon Alley telling him one time.

Because he and Jameson were alive now didn't mean that either one of them feared they would eventually be murdered by either Bellatrix or her husband, but the way Rodolphus had looked at the young blonde, had raked his dirtied fingernails through her luscious blonde curls earlier had suggested to Ted Tonks there were _other_ things on his mind he wished to do to the young witch before killing her in cold-blood and disposing of her body.

The way Rodolphus had sniffed the girl's hair came to his mind and almost made his stomach lurch and recoil in disgust. Ted had to get her out.

"Norah," Ted began in a low voice, low enough that he hoped either one of the Lestranges or anybody else who they'd brought with them in the Shrieking Shack wasn't listening. "Listen to me, I'm gonna do whatever I can to get you out of here, sweetheart. I get you out, and you stay _away_ from here, you _hear_ me? Send your boyfriend a message. Tell him and the rest of the Aurors we're here. You _find_ Tonks, tell her the truth, and tell her whatever she does, _don't_ come here. It's a trap. Somethin' tells me she'll listen to you, you're her best friend since she was five. She's _always_ respected you, liked you."

Norah nodded numbly.

Though what the young witch had thought was a healthy amount of fear skyrocketed to an unhealthy amount when she heard the sound of Rodolphus Lestranges' footsteps thudding down the hall and the door creaking open.

Her stomach churned and for a second, she thought she was going to be horribly sick all over the floor. A chill ran through the length of her body so fast that she was unaware her body started to tremble.

The fear coursing through her veins was literally sickening. It was so bad that she turned her head to the side so she wouldn't vomit onto her dress if she did happen to get sick from the fear she felt.

The door behind her didn't bang shut but instead, it closed with a loud thud and Norah jumped as Bellatrix sauntered in and moved to stand next to Ted, wrenching the older man to his feet, which elicited a pained groan from the wizard as Bellatrix Lestrange dug her fingernails into the man's forearm.

Norah's throat hurt as she considered whether or not she should say something to her captors, but as she pondered over whether or not she should even attempt to speak, she didn't know how to go about it.

Was she supposed to beg? Should she try to talk to them, then? Or should she just stay quiet?

Maybe they would take pity on her. But would the Lestranges capable of what she'd seen them do to poor Ted so far really just _give_ her up and let her _go_?

By the time Bellatrix raised her wand to Ted's throat, by some miracle of Merlin, Norah found her voice.

" _Please_ …" she found her whispered words before she'd even made the decision to speak to Bella. "Please don't _hurt_ him. Let Ted _go_. Keep _me_ …"

"Shh…" came Rodolphus' s voice, not giving Norah a chance to scream before his rough, calloused hand clamped over her mouth to stifle the yell of surprise and fear that erupted from within her. "Shut up, little dove, and _maybe_ Teddy lives."

His head moved downward, and Bellatrix's husband did not bother to complete his sentence. The older Death Eater didn't bloody need to. It was quite clear what would happen to both of them if she didn't behave if Ted tried to make a scene to escape.

Norah let the Dark wizard's words sink in as a shudder went down her back the moment he inhaled against her neck, his rough coarse skin rubbing against hers, the pads of his fingers running their way along the column of her throat, feeling her scars from where she'd been bitten when she was only two. A terrified shiver ripped through her, and Norah let out a muffled little whine as Ted's harsh, grating voice reached her eardrums, speaking to Rodolphus.

" _Bella_!" Ted shouted in utter horror. "Surely you wouldn't do this. It's _me_ you want, so let her go. The young woman has nothing to _do_ with this!" he trailed off as he dared to look into his wife's sister's deranged heavily-lidded dark eyes as she stared at him, now confident that Bellatrix was going to slaughter both him and Norah and then go for Dora.

He had to find a way to get Jameson to safety. But before he could reach for his wand that he'd hidden tucked inside his pants pocket, the sound of Lestrange's maniacal laughter filled the Shrieking Shack.

"Oh, Teddy Bear, you're such a card. I'll do whatever I _want_ to you and the _she-wolf_." She chuckled and tossed her dark hair over her shoulders. "And I don't think you're in a position to ask for _anything_ , Tonks, _are_ you?" Her tone steadily rose to convey just how furious with Ted she was.

Norah stood trembling as Rookwood wrenched her to her feet and pinned her arms behind her back, dreading what was to become if they couldn't escape.

"Take care of the _wolf_ , Rodolphus, she's far too _pretty_ for my liking, a disgusting bitch of a dog like that shouldn't be allowed to be beautiful," Bellatrix spat in disgust and contempt, as she pressed the tip of her wand into Ted's throat from behind, her hand not holding her wand wound tightly around Ted's shoulder, forcing him to watch as Rodolphus' s grip on Norah tightened, stopping any hope for escape.

Norah squirmed with every ounce of strength she possessed, but it did not seem to be enough to fight off his unwanted manhandling of her just then. Her terrified screams flooded the desolate room of the Shrieking Shack and echoed off the walls and ceiling. Ted's heart thundered relentlessly against its cage as he watched his daughter's best friend suffer.

" _Bella, stop this_!" he roared in anger, mad with his need to help the poor young woman escape this place.

He had to get her out of here and either to St. Mungo's for treatment or at a minimum, escorted up to the castle to let Pomfrey look at her in the Hospital Wing. Ted knew he would have to kill these two or die himself before letting his daughter's friend suffer one more minute of anguish in the hands of _them_.

Bella and Rodolphus were going to have to _kill_ him to stop him.

These two had better hope and prayed they'd kill him. The only thing in front of his vision was scarlet as blood filled his eyes. His only new purpose was getting Norah Jameson out of here.

In a flash of movement, Ted wrenched his arm back as hard as he possibly could and buried the crook of his elbow deep into Bellatrix's gut, causing the loyal supporter of Lord Voldemort to double over, a cry of rage and pain escaping her thin, wormy lips.

Once free of Bellatrix, he plunged his hand into the pocket of his jeans and felt his fingers of his wand hand curl into a fist around the handle. He yanked a fistful of Bellatrix's hair and grasped her by the waist, holding her close with his arm. He pressed the tip of his wand to the column of her throat, just as his wife's sister had done to him only seconds ago.

She'd be the human shield for Dora's friend.

"Get your _goddamned_ claws _off_ of her!" Ted demanded of Bellatrix's husband. Bella said nothing, her breaths coming in ragged gasps as she eyed her blood-traitor sister's husband in a challenging way.

He let out a low growl and pressed his wand even deeper into Lestrange's throat. " _Now_ , Bella! Make your husband let my daughter's friend go, or I'll cut out your evil heart and rip your tongue out!"

" _Stop_!" Bellatrix commanded Rodolphus, wincing as the tip began to go even deeper. " _Stop_!"

Ted's gaze hardened as he brought his attention towards Rodolphus, moving towards the doorway of the Shrieking Shack that would take them down the tunnel and out through the Whomping Willow, where he prayed the two would be able to make a beeline straight for Hogwarts to tell the others what had happened, and he'd find Dora.

"Let her _go_ and move _away_ from the girl or your wife's _blood_ is going to stain this floor, Rodolphus!" he promised. Bella gave the man a motionless nod, indicating to the Death Eater Ted Tonks was not a man who made idle threats at all.

Still maintaining a firm hold on his wife's sister's wife, Ted Tonks turned all of his remaining efforts onto Rodolphus Lestrange the moment he heard the other man let out a low warning growl.

Ted pointed his wand squarely at Lestrange's chest and murmured an incantation under his breath and was rewarded for his efforts when the Death Eater went flying backward, lifted up off his feet, and propelled backward onto the bed here in the Shrieking Shack. The force of the blow caused a chunk of the ceiling to collapse and bury him underneath, the weight of the ceiling killing Rodolphus and cracking the man's skull wide open.

"Let me _go_!" Bellatrix screamed, spittle flying from her lips and a vein in her neck protruding as she fought against Ted Tonks tooth and nail to break free, though his desire to save Dora's friend only intensified.

Ted let out a growl of frustration and pointed his wand to Bellatrix's chest, ignoring the brief but oh-so-satisfying whimper of fear he heard his wife's deranged sister let out.

" _Imperio_!" he snarled and let out a satisfied sigh as Bellatrix's eyes rolled up into her head until he could only see the whites of her eyes. He waved his wand wordlessly and conjured a length of rope. " _Tie yourself up to that pole and give me your wand, Lestrange_ , _do it now_ ," he barked, gesturing with a wave of his arm to a nearby pillar, one of the few things still keeping the Shrieking Shack standing on its ancient, crumbling foundation.

For a moment, Ted sincerely hoped Lyall's boy wouldn't have to set foot in his old haunt.

Bellatrix, under the influence of the Unforgiveable Curse, silently handed over her wand, which Ted broke into a thousand fragments and gave them to Norah to chuck out the nearby open window, which she only happily did, though not before shooting Dora's father a look of utter apprehension.

Ted Tonks waited to speak again until his wife's sister had done as he'd commanded her while under the influence and restrictions of the spell he'd cast. Once she'd effectively tied herself to a pole, Ted was briefly tempted to cast a Permanent Sticking Charm to the pole and let Ollie and the rest of his Aurors figure out what to do with Bella from there but resisted. He did not want to make their job harder.

Ted strode towards Norah, trying to ignore the fear in her eyes as she shrank away from her best mate's father. The fear laced throughout her brimming blue irises was almost too much to bear.

He knew Norah (or Dora, for that matter!) had never seen him like this, and she must be in shock, he rationalized, but the sooner he got Jameson to the Hospital Wing and informed Dumbledore and the others what was going on, then everyone would be safe. Right now, his only priority was Norah's safety.

"Please, Norah," he whispered. "You need to head back to the castle. Alert Dumbledore to what's happened. I will stay here with Lestrange until the Aurors arrive. Find Dora, find Lupin and the rest of them, Jameson. Let the Aurors know what happened, let _them_ deal with this _trash_ ," he snarled, casting a darkened look towards Bella, whose eyes were still rolled up in her head, and would be until the effects of the curse wore off. He could hold it for another hour, at best.

It was fear and apprehension that kept his daughter's best friend rooted to her spot where she stood in the doorway, her wand clutched limply in her hand, her lips parted open in fear and utter awe.

She stood for a moment of uncertainty that made Ted Tonks's heart flutter in his chest. He'd hoped his little violent display of aggression hadn't tainted the young woman's opinion of her friend's father. He needed to be careful how he addressed it.

" _Please_ ," he asked again, not quite begging her but coming close. "I just want to see my baby girl again, to know she's all right. I need you to get help. Don't worry about me, dear, I'll be just fine for a bit."

His eyes begged her to summon the strength within to move. Norah bit down on her bottom lip, but only for a moment as she quickly nodded her head.

"Y—you're _sure_ you'll be all right here on your own, Mr. Tonks?" she questioned, sounding doubtful of her own words as they left her lips as she retreated to the door, though she never once reverted her gaze from Ted.

Ted quickly nodded his agreement to her. "Yes. We can't waste time, dear. _Go_. _Now_ ," he barked, his tone coming out harsher than he meant to, for he saw the young blonde witch and werewolf flinch away in both antagonized hurt and surprise, but he didn't feel like apologizing for his rudeness if it meant it would spur Dora's best friend into action.

Norah nodded, stepping back over the threshold of the open doorway that led out into the hallway that would take her to the tunnel out of the Shrieking Shack. The pair of them looked at one another, fearful.

Ted knew it was only a matter of time before the Imperius Curse wore off, he could hold it against her for an hour at best, but even without her wand, Bellatrix Lestrange was a formidable witch, and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

She was already pissed Ted killed Rodolphus, and there was no telling what her wrath was certain to be like when Bellatrix came around.

When still, the young blonde seemed hesitant to leave Ted Tonks alone with the insane witch, Ted felt something ugly shift within himself and snap. They were on borrowed time here, and the longer Dora's friend remained shellshocked and in a dazed stupor of fear was a time that was being wasted.

" **GO**!" he roared, his temper flaring as a hot fire-seed of anger ignited within the man's chest.

Norah let out a terrified squeak and ducked out into the hallway and down the walkway path.

She did not need to be told a third time. Norah broke into a ran and ran down the tunnel that would take her to the Whomping Willow's entrance as quickly as possible, her heart pounding in her chest.

The young blonde witch and werewolf barely made it out of the Whomping Willow's secret door when her shoulder collided against something hard and cold. Dazed and stunned, Norah staggered backward.

A yelp of surprise left her throat as she looked up at the source, hardly daring to believe her eyes.

This _had_ to be _him_ , it just bloody _had_ to be!

When her wide, almond-shaped blue eyes first landed on the short, stout, and kind of plump man in front of her, she at first, couldn't process the information, what her retinas were seeing for themselves.

Norah's mouth went dry, her chest heaving in terror as the emotion seized her entire body as she staggered backward, having to lift the hem of her silver formal dress to avoid tripping on it.

Reading the Auror's official reports while helping Ollie pour over the case details of what little they knew of Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, she'd never been able to fully appreciate the terror those twelve poor innocent Muggles, those victims, and innocent bystanders must have felt before they died.

Now she could. The moment the man in the tattered, dusty, and darned black pinstriped suit took a step forward, she collided and almost fell through the open doorway of the Whomping Willow.

Peter Pettigrew approached her slowly and calmly, his wand held almost tenderly in his fingers.

Even now, as he looked at Norah with a small glimmer of intrigue in his glistening eyes, he didn't rush. Norah felt tears prick at the edges of her lids as he came closer to her and she waited for the inevitable flash of green light, the last and worst of the Unforgiveable Curses, to hit her chest and end her life.

Norah knew her chances of escaping were slim to none. She wasn't an Animagus like Peter. While Hogwarts remained under the protection of Albus Dumbledore, she couldn't very well Disapparate. He would catch her before she could even get two feet away from this blasted tree and head towards the castle, just like Ted had instructed.

"M—Mr. Pettigrew?" she whispered cautiously, and when he suddenly jerked his hand holding his wand, he froze, and Norah felt her heart almost stop.

She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the feeling of the last and worst Unforgiveable Curse to hit her chest, to feel her last breath leave her lips, but it didn't come.

When Norah summoned even an ounce of her inner Gryffindor courage and dared to peek open an eyelid, still keeping her hands shielding over her face, she looked at the man who'd betrayed the Potters to Lord Voldemort and his dark followers.

"Peter?" she squeaked, hoping she'd not overstepped some invisible boundary by using his first name, and she flinched, but only because the man did so upon hearing his first name uttered from her lips.

He looked startled and was looking at her like he wasn't quite sure what to do with Norah. To her utter amazement, the man dropped the hand wielding his want, a hesitant look darting across his nervous and skittish, pudgy features.

Norah stared across the way at Peter Pettigrew with no small amount of caution in her eyes. She had no clue how to go about this. she'd admittedly not expected to run into him of all people upon barely making it out of the tunnel of the Whomping Willow. Her first instinct was to run to the castle, as fast and as hard as she could, and not to look back.

But neither did she want the prime suspect that Ollie had been hunting now for the better part of a year to rabbit away, given how skittish and fearful the short wizard was looking. Either way, the fact that Mr. Pettigrew had lowered his wand was a good thing! It meant that he _wasn't_ going to kill her, then!

Maybe, just maybe, there was some small shred of mercy nestled deep within the man's soul. It just took the right situation to pull it to the surface.

Norah emanated a tense breath through her nose, slowly lowering her hands, but holding them out in front of her as a sign of cautious surrender.

"I—I _know_ you don't _want_ to hurt me," she began cautiously. "B—but I—I need you to let me _pass_ , Mr. Pettigrew. One of my friends' lives is in danger, and Professor Dumbledore needs to be told."

She swallowed down hard as a fleeting look of understanding almost seemed to dart across the man's narrowed, beady, and rather rat-like irises.

" _Who_?" he managed to croak out in a hoarse chirp that suggested to the blonde werewolf he'd not used his voice in quite some time. She thought it a wonder the man could much less even speak at all.

"Ted Tonks." Norah did not know why she was spilling the Merlin-honest truth to a wanted man, but she hoped the more she divulged, maybe Pettigrew would take pity on her and help her out.

Or at a minimum, not kill her and let her pass.

Norah pressed on, sensing the man's resolve crumbling right before her very eyes. "He—he's got Bellatrix Lestrange under the Imperius Curse. The Aurors need to be told. They—they'll want to question you, b—but I _promise_ …"

Here she hesitated, biting down on her bottom lip, not even sure she possessed any say in what she was about to promise to Peter, but if it meant saving her life, then she was more than willing to try, even if Ollie would be pissed at her for it when he came to apprehend Pettigrew.

Pettigrew's eyes narrowed as his lips pursed into a thin, unmovable line while he waited for Norah to collect her thoughts and continue spouting her promise that she could tell that he doubted she'd keep.

But still. Norah had promised. She had to _try_. Ted's life depended on it. Norah swallowed down past the lump in her throat as it hollowed, constricting, and rendering it almost to the point where she felt _as_ though she was likely to pass out.

"I…I _promise_ to try to do what I can to put in a good word for you. I—if you _help_ me now, I'll see what I can do about putting in a word with Albus Dumbledore and the rest of the Aurors to lighten your sentence and keep the Dementors off you."

Her surge of triumph as the desperate plea left her mouth quickly began to fade, however, as she watched Peter Pettigrew raise his wand again, though before she could feel the inevitable terror that would undoubtedly flood her entire body, he jerked his hand down, and from the tip of his wand burst forth a blinding white light that Norah had to immediately squeeze her eyes shut so she wouldn't be blinded.

By the time her vision recovered, Pettigrew had turned his back on her and was looking up towards the castle, a look of nervous trepidation on his face.

When the man seemed to regain control of his voice and the ability to speak, his words were so hushed and faint, Norah had to lean forward, straining her wolfish hearing to pick up any sounds.

"Lead the way, then."

Peter Pettigrew did not speak to Norah Jameson at all as he continued to keep his wand arm aloft, providing light for Norah to see. Stunned and in a daze, she was sure the expression on her face betrayed her shock and awe.

But Norah quickly recovered, giving her head a curt shake to clear her mind. Ted was counting on her to do this and do it fast. She motioned with a wave of her arm for Peter Pettigrew to follow her up to the castle to speak to Dora, Lupin, and Albus, and anybody else she could find that could send for help.

As she broke into a light jog, the former Marauder right at her heels, Norah allowed one thought to flit through her mind as she led the way. It seeped into her troubled brain like a plague, until Norah Jameson could think of nothing else, but she knew she had little other option but to go with her gut instinct, as Ted Tonks was on borrowed time.

_I hope this isn't a mistake to trust him…_


End file.
